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Crown buds in the great Tönnies butcher shop are still present for everyone. Hundreds of eastern European butchers were also infected in other German slaughterhouses. The reason: They live in precarious conditions, share a room and sanitary facilities. Conditions in which the coronavirus could spread rapidly.
And yet German pork is in great demand in Switzerland. Import figures soared this year, reports the “SonntagsZeitung”. It was around 5,300 tons in the first nine months. Of this, 4,400 tons came from Germany. Compared to the same period in the previous year, the increase in German products is 34 percent, and compared to the same period in 2018, almost ten times more German pork was imported.
“Cruel conditions with animals”
Animal rights activists go to the barricades for this. “It is worrying that more and more pork is imported from Germany. Because there are industrial production conditions that must be described as cruel to animals ”, says Stefan Flückiger, managing director of Swiss Animal Welfare, in the“ SonntagsZeitung ”.
But it’s not just consumers who are seemingly paying more attention to price than origin. From a financial point of view, cheap German meat imports are also profitable for industry and trade. “Production costs in Germany are so low that cheap imported pork is cheaper than Swiss meat for traders and manufacturers, despite customs duties,” says Flückiger.
“Assortment temporarily expanded”
In Proviande, the subsidiary organization of the Swiss meat industry, it is said: “The low sales prices offset the high customs duties.” And a spokesman for the Federal Office of Agriculture told the Sunday newspaper: “German pork prices are particularly lucrative.”
Why are the two big companies, Migros and Coop, increasingly dependent on imported meat from Germany? Have you taken on the mission of supporting local agriculture and ensuring animal welfare? “Due to the pandemic, the demand for pork exceeded the Swiss supply, so the range had to be temporarily widened,” says Coop.
And at Migros: “For processed pork products, Migros had to turn to imported products due to high demand, like all other retailers.” (pbe)
