China has lifted some restrictions on German dairy product imports, German ministry says

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LONDON (Reuters) -China has lifted some restrictions on imports of German milk and dairy products over foot-and-mouth disease, the German agriculture minsitry said on late on Wednesday.

Germany announced the country’s first outbreak of the disease in nearly 40 years on January 10 in a herd of water buffalo in Brandenburg near Berlin. There have been no new cases reported since then, the ministry said.

The outbreak remains at one case, with no others reported, though the cause is still unknown.

After intensive negotiations China has now agreed that imports of heat-treated German dairy products can resume immediately, Germany’s agriculture ministry said.

China imported more than 296,000 metric tons of German milk and dairy products in 2023, equating to 24.9% of Germany’s dairy exports outside the EU.

“With China, we have one of the largest and most important markets for our dairy products back on board,” said German agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir.

“Since the FMD (foot and mouth disease) case appeared in Brandenburg, we in the ministry have been working hard at all levels to keep the consequences for our economy as minimal as possible and to reopen the markets in third countries so that the export of animal agricultural products is possible without complications.”

In February the European Commission approved the lifting of a 3 km protection zone around the site of the outbreak and its redesignation as an observation zone.

Three months must pass without a new case before Germany can be regarded as free of the disease.

The agriculture ministry said in February that it is preparing an application to the World Organisation for Animal Health to have Germany declared free of foot-and-mouth. This could enable export restrictions on German meat and dairy products to be lifted.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan in HamburgEditing by David Goodman)