EU stops Jersey cattle exports over paperwork

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Jersey’s dairy industry has been banned from exporting cattle over EU regulations about disease checks, despite the fact that tests have shown that cattle here have been disease-free for years.

All cattle exports from Jersey have been suspended, and ministers have been briefed about the fresh crisis which a report by the Economic Development department said “could have a devastating impact on profitability of Jersey Dairy and the Island’s individual dairy farms” and which could have led to a cull of calves. Funding for a testing programme is now in place and it is expected that exports will be resumed, possibly by the end of the year.

Although tests on cattle have been routinely carried out, they were not done in line with EU regulations. When Jersey applied for certification last year through the UK, they refused to grant official disease-free status. That has suspended all exports to the UK, and it will be at least six months before a new £267,000 testing procedure can be put in place to gain EU accreditation to allow the exports to resume.

A report by the Economic Development department noted: “The situation is hugely frustrating because all the evidence supports the case that the diseases bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and enzootic bovine leucosis are not present and have not been present for many years, if ever, particularly in the case of enzootic bovine leucosis.”

Last spring the EU told the UK that despite years of Islandwide testing and full accreditation from the Cattle Health Certification Standards programme, the Island could not be classed as being officially free from diseases. But it was only this month that Economic Development asked the Treasury department for emergency funding to set up the necessary checks.

There are 23 commercial dairy farms in Jersey, eight of which rear heifers for the UK export market.

The report said that if without an export licence, if there was not enough demand for animals or meat “there may be calls for a planned cull on welfare grounds with consequent reputational damage and potentially compensation”.