African swine fever zone expands, threatening to disrupt grain harvest

Finland’s Food Authority has expanded the African swine fever infection zone to include Kotka, Hamina and Pyhtää, as well as parts of Kouvola and Loviisa, Yle reports. Restrictions on grain producers could significantly disrupt the harvest, which is currently under way.

The authority has not yet announced the restrictions that will apply in the newly added areas. It is expected to issue guidance on Tuesday.

Previously, the authority said that grain and feed collected within the infection zone could not be used to feed pigs until it had been stored for at least 30 days. The expanded zone also bans hunting and feeding animals in a way that would provide food for wild boar.

Farmer Topi Töyrylä has a farm in Muhniemi, Kouvola, inside the new zone. His grain storage facilities are full, while 10 hectares of spring crops still remain to be harvested.

Töyrylä said applying the 30-day storage requirement to the new zone would prolong the harvest and leave some farmers without enough storage capacity.

“The harvest forecast in southeastern Finland is good, so the crop would be left in the fields,” he said.

In Töyrylä’s view, potential restrictions would pose a greater challenge to pig farmers than to grain producers. If pigs ready for slaughter could not be moved out of the infection zone, producers could face substantial financial losses, he said.

State-owned Suomen Viljava operates grain storage facilities at the ports of Kotka and Loviisa, both of which are in the new zone. Its chief executive, Jarkko Arrajoki, said the expanded zone covers a larger grain-producing area than the earlier zone in Miehikkälä and Virolahti.

“The effects of the restrictions on the entire grain supply chain would be very significant. It is harvest time, so a great deal of grain is moving around Finland,” Arrajoki said.

Suomen Viljava, like other industry operators, is waiting for the Food Authority’s new instructions. Arrajoki said the company had tried to arrange receiving locations for grain that had not been stored for the required 30 days. A grain storage facility in Vainikkala, Lappeenranta, is also available to its customers, although it has not been needed so far.