Five countries banned entry of British poultry

South Korea and Hong Kong are the latest countries and territories to ban imports of poultry from the United Kingdom after an outbreak of H5N1 at a turkey farm in Suffolk. While people have destroyed all 159,000 poultry in infected areas, there are still five countries officially stopping British poultry imports.

The remaining three countries are Russia, Japan and South Africa.

He is the second largest poultry producer in Europe, after France. Each year, UK poultry exports earn £ 300 million. The British Poultry Committee said poultry exports accounted for about 10% of the annual income.

Duck live

While four out of five countries have completely banned the importation of British poultry, only Russia still allows the import of cooked poultry products.

The five countries that banned imports of poultry products are also small markets of the UK

Total UK poultry exports to Russia are worth about 11 million pounds a year. In comparison, South Korea imported only British poultry products worth about 3 million pounds last year, most of which are live ducks for breeding.

The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture said it would destroy or return 3645 British ducks that they currently quarantine.

Hong Kong imported 11400 tons of British poultry in the first 10 months of last year. However, they issued a ban effective immediately.

Although the five countries' import ban will affect the UK poultry sector, these are generally small markets. Most of the UK's poultry exports, between 75 and 80%, go to European Union countries.

Under EU law, countries are only allowed to ban poultry imports from infected areas, ie around the farm in England's Suffolk.