The National Association of Meat Industries of Spain (ANICE) estimates the impact on the State as a whole at 350 million euros due to the reduction in the sector's exports to Japan and Mexico derived from African Swine Fever (ASF). In a statement published this Friday, the organization—which represents more than 600 companies with a 75% market share—indicates that sales of meat and pork product scraps to the Asian country have fallen by 74% in volume and 77.5% in value compared to last year, in a context prior to the detection of the first cases. The situation in Mexico is even more critical for the sector, as exports have been reduced to zero, the association asserts.

Since 2019, the absolute value added (GVA) – an indicator similar to gross domestic product that measures the level of economic activity in a region – of the Osona region has grown by 7.1%. This rate is significantly higher than the Catalan average (2.7%) and is only surpassed by Garrotxa (8.4%) and Gironès (7.3%), according to the latest data.Regional economic yearbookfrom BBVA. This economic progress is largely due to the strength of the meat industry, which boasts giants in the sector. It is estimated that around 30,000 pigs are slaughtered daily in the region's abattoirs, a task that, surprisingly, is still largely done manually. Therefore, there is a strong demand for labor in Osona, primarily supplied by the foreign population, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, while in 2015 three out of every ten workers were foreign, now it is six out of ten.

The concern about the emergence of African swine fever is understandable, because Catalan pork exports exceeded €3 billion in 2024. Compared to other sectors, the agri-food sector represented 19% of GDP, and pork exports accounted for 19% of total sales. These are very high figures. That's why it's vital that the outbreaks detected in wild boar don't spread to farms, an objective that has led the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, to ask people not to enter the areas where access has been restricted, "whether out of empathy for livestock farming, the rural world, or the economy." Let's be clear: this is a matter of national strategic interest, and citizen cooperation is absolutely essential. But this is where we must remember that the word empathy It must go both ways: from the country to the sector, but also from the sector to the country. And this empathy hasn't always existed: when there have been cases of millions of liters of slurry being dumped clandestinely, when the permitted limits for slurry application for fertilizing fields have been exceeded—causing the contamination of numerous aquifers—or when water pollution has been found in dozens of municipalities across our country.