Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner and her Chinese counterpart Tang Renjian exchanged views on current issues in agricultural relations via video. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture announced this in a press release. The conversation took place as part of the 6th German-Chinese government consultations, which will result in a meeting between the two cabinets at the end of April.

The bilateral discussion focused, among other things, on the effects of African Swine Fever (ASF) on trade, according to the BMEL. Federal Minister Julia Klöckner explained the current situation in Germany to her Chinese colleague and emphasized that the population of domestic pigs was ASF-free, the outbreak had been detected in two federal states in wild boars, Germany made considerable efforts with biosecurity, educational and hunting, test measures and fence construction at high pressure and coordinate with neighboring countries. This is why the concept of regionalization - i.e. delimiting the areas affected by an export stop based on the outbreak - is successful in the EU and can also be transferred to exports. Both ministers agreed to lead and set up an appropriate group so that we can move forward together on this topic. According to the Federal Minister, the goal is clear: we want an agreement to resume trading. That is why the agreement on intensive negotiations in a German-Chinese group of experts is an important step.