Belpork, The Belgian standard owner of the BePork quality scheme for pork, has developed an animal welfare standard for the Belgian pork sector.

Ambitious goals of AMCRA for 2020 partially realised.

How do Belgian meat suppliers easily adapt to new markets while creating added value for meat importers?

Annabelle Schreiber is the new Belgian agricultural attaché to China for food safety and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) related measures.

Belgian Meat Office discussed the past year’s events with Michael Gore, managing director at FEBEV and the man behind the meat industry contingency plan.

On 1 January 2021, Belpork vzw launched the renewed BePork quality standard. Liesbet Pluym, the quality assurance adviser and coordinator of the association, explains what people can expect from BePork. 

As Belgium values transparent communication with its trade partners around the world, importing countries will receive all the information they need so trade can resume. 

The World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE) confirmed the ASF-free status in all suidae of Belgium

On 20 November 2020, the European Commission declares Belgium free from ASF. The ASF-free status is expected to be published soon on the OIE website.

On 26 October, the Philippine Government published a memorandum order to lift the temporary ban on the importation of domestic pigs and their products from Belgium.

COVID-19 has had and will continue to have a global impact on consumption, production, and export in the second half of 2020 and into 2021. Despite these challenges, the meat industry has shown signs of recovery. Even so, the future and the full impact of COVID-19 remains uncertain.  

The last positive case confirmed on a fresh carcass dates from the 11th of August 2019. Up until the 1st of September 2020, 5352 wild boar have been analysed for ASF, among which 833 have been confirmed positive for African swine fever (ASF).