At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Cho Jung-tai received briefings from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Digital Affairs regarding a subsidy plan, border controls and other government measures to manage the spread of African swine fever (ASF). The premier said that to effectively curb the spread of ASF, the MOA on October 26 announced a 10-day extension of the ban on pig transportation, slaughter and feeding of food waste to pigs. At the same time, the MOA launched a second round of strengthened measures, including graded inspections, enhanced disinfection, targeted epidemiological investigations and expanded tracing. The premier asked the MOA, Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and Ministry of Environment to join forces with local governments in achieving the strategic goal of eradicating ASF area by area.
Premier Cho said that the central government is also implementing guidance and support measures to ease the impact on pig farming operations and the livelihoods of related workers during the ban period. These measures include feed subsidies to cover the extra cost for pig farms transitioning away from using food waste, as well as a subsidy plan for personnel and businesses across the primary industry chain, including pig farmers, wholesalers, meat markets, slaughterhouses and food vendors.
Premier Cho emphasized that, aside from containing the outbreak domestically, vigilance in border disease prevention must also be maintained. To this end, he directed the MOF, MOI and Ministry of Transportation and Communications to continue enforcing X-ray screening of all parcels, express deliveries and luggage from high-risk areas, while further increasing the proportion of items manually inspected to at least 20%. The premier also called for increased oversight of overseas e-commerce platforms and private freight consolidators, and enhanced inspections of high-risk contractors and customs brokers. In addition, he instructed the Ocean Affairs Council to continue strengthening anti-smuggling operations, with the aim of preventing the further entry of ASF from abroad.