If the African swine fever battle is lost, Taiwan will suffer losses of 200 billion! The Council of Agriculture is blocking the disease from land, sea and air, with fines up to 1 million, and calls on all citizens to join the fight

Text by Newsmarket reporters Lin Yu-pu and Lin Pei-chun

As China's swine fever outbreak continues to intensify, Taiwan is on high alert, not only striving to keep the disease out but also drawing up response measures should an outbreak occur in Taiwan. DPP legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung and others held a press conference titled "A Century's Swine Fever Strikes" at the Legislative Yuan today (the 10th), stating that major pig-farming counties such as Pingtung lack sufficient quarantine personnel, and that Taiwan should seek to join the Asian regional epidemic prevention alliance as it did during SARS to raise its disease prevention standards.

Chen Chi-chung, acting chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that if African swine fever enters Taiwan, estimated losses could reach 200 billion New Taiwan dollars. The Legislative Yuan has passed on third reading a measure raising the fine for bringing Chinese meat products into Taiwan from 15,000 yuan to 1 million yuan, to strengthen deterrence. At present, the highest proportion of those bringing meat products back to Taiwan are new residents from China, followed by spouses of Vietnamese nationality. In addition to strengthening public awareness campaigns, the government will in future send an immediate text message upon any citizen's arrival in China stating "do not bring meat products back to Taiwan," and selling meat products from the mainland is also prohibited. In addition, domestic and overseas e-commerce platforms are required not to sell Chinese meat products, with violators subject to a 7-year prison sentence.

Chen Chi-chung: Fine raised to 1 million, text messages sent upon entry to China warning not to bring meat products back to Taiwan

At present the Council of Agriculture has only used 12 public service announcements for publicity, resulting in insufficient media visibility, and even the promotional materials are downloaded and printed by the public themselves. In response, Chen Chi-chung said the fine for bringing Chinese meat products back to Taiwan will be raised from 15,000 yuan to 1 million yuan to strengthen deterrence.

At present, the highest proportion of those bringing Chinese meat products back to Taiwan are new residents, among whom mainland spouses are the most numerous, followed by spouses of Vietnamese nationality. The government will print 560,000 awareness leaflets, and in future any Taiwan citizen entering China will immediately receive a text message notifying them that meat products may not be brought in and that no Chinese pork processed products may be sold. With regard to e-commerce platforms, domestic and overseas platforms have been required not to sell Chinese meat products, with violators subject to a 7-year prison sentence.

On reinforcing funding and manpower, Chen Chi-chung said the Council of Agriculture will apply to the Executive Yuan for the second reserve fund, which currently still has 3.7 billion, and will step up the application; 30 personnel have also been reassigned specifically to handle African swine fever issues, and an emergency task force has been established to meet regularly every week to prevent the incursion of swine fever.

Strengthening disease prevention, plans to send a delegation to China, awaiting China's response

Chen Chi-chung said in a recent interview that our country's grasp of China's African swine fever outbreak remains incomplete and can only be based on the data China reports to the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health); therefore he hopes to send a delegation to the mainland to learn about actual cases of the outbreak, and our country is also willing to provide relevant disease prevention technology. The Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation have been asked to convey this willingness, and a response from China is awaited.

Although the two sides of the strait previously had an animal and plant quarantine and inspection agreement specifically for exchanges and quarantine of agricultural products, cross-strait interaction has cooled considerably at present, and the Council of Agriculture admits it is unsure whether China will be willing to exchange disease prevention work. However, Huang Chin-cheng stressed that if China conducts thorough disease prevention, the risk of African swine fever infection in neighbouring countries will also be greatly reduced, so he hopes our experts can go to the mainland as soon as possible to understand the outbreak and devise a more comprehensive battle plan.

First disease prevention drill to be held at the end of the month