Kent Tonight Special: Illegal Meat Crisis at the Border

KentOnline / KMTV

The amount of illegal meat seized by Dover Port Health Authority has increased fivefold over the last two years. An investigation into the enforcement weaknesses that are leaving British farmers and consumers vulnerable to imported animal diseases.

Transcript

00:00Hello, welcome to this special episode of Kent tonight on KMTV, where we're looking

00:26at the increase in meat smuggling at the port of Dover. Now, this September, the Environment,

00:31Food and Rural Affairs Committee released a damning report titled Biosecurity at the

00:35Border, Britain's Illegal Meat Crisis. It listed a number of failures at the border,

00:40which have created what they've called a superhighway of meat illegally coming into the

00:44country. Now, this poses a number of risks, but particularly to the nation's farmers.

00:49I went to meet one at Biddenden to hear his concerns.

00:53I'm here in Ashford to meet Hugh Richards to find out how illegal meat imports are affecting

00:58Kent's farmers.

00:59I'm Hugh Richards. Welcome to Pullenbaum Farm. I farm in the Weald of Kent. I've been farming

01:05here on my own since 1995 with beef cattle. Before that, my father started in the 50s and

01:11was tenant and then dairy farm up until 1995. The rise in the imported meat is something

01:17that's tickling along in the background and affects us here in Kent because a lot of it

01:22is coming in through Dover. Yes, it's a serious concern and a worry locally, but also it's

01:27a worry nationally because if a disease gets in and an infection gets in and blows up, you

01:31don't know where it's going to end up. If we should get infected with foot and mouth

01:36or swine flu, foot and mouth will affect my cows. And if it comes in across the channel,

01:40then they wouldn't just cull individual animals. They would cull all the cattle on the farm.

01:45So there's 220 head of cattle on this farm, 80 breeding cows, but the bulls would go, the

01:51cows would go and all these calves would go. With such devastating potential consequences,

01:56it's hardly surprising that organisations like the National Farmers Union have been calling

02:00on the government to do more to tackle Britain's illegal meat crisis.

02:05In order to do it, it's not just a question of having more checks. It's actually being able

02:10to carry out the checks properly because you've got cars coming in through Dover all the time.

02:17And so they've got to be given the amount of facilities they need to do the job properly.

02:22The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report highlights concerns that British farmers

02:27are being undercut by cheap, poor quality animal products.

02:32The reason our meat costs more is because we have a lot higher welfare standards. We're not

02:37allowed to use hormones. We have to record all the antibiotics we use, all the worms we use,

02:43all the antelomatics to treat the cattle.

02:45It's clear from speaking to Hugh that illegal meat smuggling can have devastating consequences

02:49for British farmers. The 2001 foot and mouth outbreak cost the public and private sector

02:54almost £14 billion in today's money. But how does meat smuggled in the back of a lorry

03:00or a van actually end up affecting a farm like this?

03:04So our reporter Josh McMinn has been reading the EFRA report and can answer that question.

03:09He joins us now. Welcome, Josh. So tell us, how does meat smuggled in the back of a lorry

03:15or a van end up affecting livestock with foot and mouth disease?

03:17So foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious disease. So say some meat comes from a country

03:23which has foot and mouth disease and it's been in contact with the illness. It will come here,

03:27maybe it touches someone's clothes or a vehicle or some farm equipment. And then once that gets

03:33into contact with livestock and it's among the livestock community, it will spread like wildfire.

03:38And like that farmer said in that package, I mean, it really requires drastic measures to stop.

03:43And I mean, foot and mouth is just one of 89 diseases which pose a high risk to the UK.

03:48And you've got the report here in front of you. Could you tell us a bit more about it?

03:52Yeah, so this is a report done by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee or EFRA.

03:58Confusingly, a very similar name to DEFRA, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

04:02But two different things, DEFRA, the government body, EFRA, the committee. And it was really done

04:07in response to the massive increase in illegal meat smuggling we've seen in the last few years.

04:11So just running some numbers in 2022, 128 tonnes were said to enter the country. Two years later,

04:18in 2024, that almost doubled to 235 tonnes. And for Kent residents, it's an even bigger issue. If we look

04:25at stats for the port of Dover, I mean, it's almost tripled in that time. And so this report is really

04:31looking at why it's an issue and what they recommend the government to do to tackle that.

04:36And what are some of the shortcomings that were found in the report?

04:40So there's a couple of really big things. I mean, the first thing is that there seems to be no

04:44effective deterrent to people smuggling illegal meat. I mean, they can kind of just get away with

04:49it. There are fines that the Port Health Authority can issue. Some bodies can also prosecute. But the

04:55chief veterinary officer told the committee that she wasn't aware of any fines issued or prosecutions.

05:00Another problem, though, is that it doesn't seem to be the responsibility of any one body. So you've got

05:05DEFRA, you've got Border Force, Port Health Authority, Food Standards Agency, National Crime Unit,

05:11and they don't necessarily communicate and they don't necessarily solve the problem together. And

05:15so we've actually got really poor data on this. We don't know what kind of meat is coming in. And we also

05:20critically don't know where it's going. So that's a real concern.

05:24As you say, Josh, one of the big things we don't know is where this meat ends up. But

05:29Josh took to the streets of Kemp to try and find out. One of the reasons so much illegal meat is

05:37getting through is because of problems here at the Port of Dover. Port authorities can only check a

05:42small proportion of the trucks that come through their gates. Other drivers will get a text message

05:46telling them to drive to Sevington, 20 miles away. Let's go check it out.

05:50Now you might be thinking, what's to stop drivers from offloading their illegal meat on this drive

05:59between the two sites? Well, nothing. And this is something that the Port authorities are really

06:05worried about. Lucy Manzano, Head of Port Health and Public Protection, said it was like going to the

06:10airport without having your carry-on bags checked. So the numbers we have for illegal meat in ports might

06:15be way less than what's actually entering the country. But how is this influx of cheap,

06:20unregulated meat affecting local businesses? We spoke to William Ross, who runs the Tartan Butchers in

06:27Faversham. There was a particular time, I worked for a butcher's many years ago, maybe about seven

06:33years ago, and there was a gentleman who turned up in a black Range Rover and he approached, I was

06:42manager of the shop at the time and he approached me and said, I've got a pallet of this, pallet of this.

06:46The gentleman was not involved in the meat trade, I wouldn't buy from him because I stick with the

06:51people I know, sell quality and that's it. And I said to him, where are you getting it? And he wouldn't

06:57tell me where it's from. But if a gentleman like that on the street is just buying pallets of meat,

07:03there's no traceability, no nothing. We buy from trusted people on the market, people I've dealt with for

07:0910 to 15 years, and I wouldn't buy my meat anywhere else. It's just, it's not safe.

07:16The government's report into meat smuggling says there are still intelligence gaps about

07:20where illegal meat is being sold. So what can you do to make sure you're eating good quality meat?

07:25We as consumers of the meat product that we do, the carnivores, we have to buy from trusted sources.

07:32There's something in a butcher shop that is about pride. If everybody shopped at a butcher shop

07:37and ate every possible bit of the animal, rather than picking your cherry cut, such as your fillet,

07:45your sirloin, things like that, meat would become a lot affordable. It would stop

07:51people trying to make a quick bit of money on meat. While consumers can be careful not to buy

07:56untraceful meat, it's still ultimately up to the government to stop it from getting here in the first

08:01place. Earlier, I put some of the findings of our investigation and the effort report to Kevin Mills,

08:12the head of Dover District Council, which also runs the Dover Port Health Authority.

08:18You know, one of the things that we saw in that report that was of interest was the fact that the

08:22inland boarding facility in Sevington is 20 miles drive away from Dover Port. You know,

08:27what is to stop drivers not completing that journey? Well, anecdotally, we would say drivers

08:35aren't completing that journey. But what we've got to remember is what we're actually dealing with here

08:39is the illegal meat imports. That's got to be done at the point of entry. You control the border,

08:43strangely, at the border. And you did mention there that it's going to be a multi-agency response to

08:48tackle, you know, the larger issue. And the report did highlight that in the past, DEFRA and the Dover

08:54Port Health Authority had a dysfunctional relationship. That relationship, how is that

08:58looking now? It's a complete mood change. I mean, you know, they are very supportive of what we're

09:06trying to do. They realise we're trying to do this for the good of the nation. And I think that, you

09:10know, there's a view now that, you know, we cannot afford to see foot and mouth African swine food at

09:15the United Kingdom. And there was one case early this year in Germany. That's one case. And it cost the

09:21German nation one billion euros. You know, it would devastate not just the economy of this country,

09:27but it will devastate the farming industry in this country. So, you know, there's a responsibility on

09:31all of us. And I think, you know, DEFRA are well on board with that to try and prevent it. You know,

09:36some of us are old enough to remember, you know, fields of burning carcasses on the foot and mouth,

09:41and no one wants to see that again. There's nothing more depressing for somebody dealing with border

09:45control, you know, to be dealing with, you know, illicit meat, and then watching other vehicles go

09:50past, which you think, actually, I'd love to have been able to get in there as well,

09:53because they're definitely going to be at it. So, you know, there's a number of facets

09:57that we've got to approach. But, you know, it's very confusing for the public,

10:02this issue with all of the different agencies involved, you know, who is ultimately going to

10:07take accountability of the issue? I mean, at the end of the day, it's going to have to be DEFRA,

10:14because they're the government department dealing with it with overall responsibility.

10:18But what we're saying is give the powers to the Port Health Authority. We're a different case,

10:23this Port Health Authority, to any other in the country. We've got the short straights,

10:26you know, and that brings with it a lot of challenges. But, you know, give us the tools,

10:32and we'll do the job. And we will work with DEFRA, you know, to ensure that the levels of control

10:38far exceed what there is now, and give some assurance regarding protection to not just the country and the

10:44Treasury, because, you know, they'll be the ones that have to bear the cost should there be an outbreak.

10:49But the farming community, which, you know, at the end of the day, is not an easy business to be in.

10:55And, you know, they're looking over and seeing what's happening in Europe,

10:59and, you know, do not want it to come to the United Kingdom, and neither do we.

11:02Well, thank you so much for your time this morning, Kevin. I really appreciate it.

11:06It was good talking to you.

11:07No problem. Take care.

11:12You've been watching Kent Tonight's special on KMTV. Now, there's more news made just for Kent

11:17throughout the evening. And don't forget, you can always keep up to date with the latest news

11:21across your county by logging on to kmtv.co.uk. You can keep us on your social timelines by liking us on

11:28Facebook and following us on TikTok. You can also test your knowledge about illegal meat smuggling

11:34by looking out for a quiz on KMTV's Facebook. And if you have a story you think we should be covering,

11:40then get in touch. We also have a series of special programmes which you can watch

11:45throughout the week or catch up with on our website. Goodbye.

11:58We'll see you next time.

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