Morocco stops German feed grain imports over foot-and-mouth disease

Morocco has halted imports of feed grains from Germany following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the head of Morocco's grain trade federation (FNCL) said on Thursday.

The import suspension affected "all untreated plant-based feed intended for animal consumption from Germany due to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak there," Omar Yacoubi told Reuters.

A source at Morocco's food safety agency ONSSA confirmed that plant-based imports from Germany for animal feed had been "suspended" until Germany is declared free of foot and mouth again or certifies local regions that are free of the disease.

Germany announced its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years on Jan. 10 in a herd of water buffalo near Berlin in the Brandenburg region. That remains the only reported case so far.

The outbreak has led to trade restrictions from some countries including Britain on livestock-related goods from Germany.

Germany's agriculture ministry said on Jan. 13 that the loss of Germany's status as a country free of foot-and-mouth disease meant exporting a wide range of farm products outside the European Union would no longer be possible.

Traders have reported that exporters have sourced some feed barley cargoes for Morocco in France instead of Germany in response to the trade restriction. [GRA/TEND]

However, other importing countries were still accepting German feed grain and one cargo of German barley initially sold for Morocco would be shipped to Tunisia, traders said.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly infectious virus that causes fever and mouth blisters in cloven-hoofed ruminants, such as cattle, swine, sheep and goats, but poses no danger to humans.

The disease occurs regularly in parts of the world including in Africa but Morocco has not recorded an outbreak since 2019.