28.10.2017

France can now sell foie gras in Japan again, following a ban on exports due to two outbreaks of avian influenza. Japan is the largest importer of the delicacy, whose production involves force-feeding birds, massively engorging their liver.
An outbreak of the H5N1 virus in 2015-16 and a further outbreak of H5N8 during 2016-17 deprived France of the status necessary to export outside Europe, cutting off important markets in Japan, China and Saudi Arabia.
On Friday the World Organisation for Animal Health declared France virus-free and Japan was the first country to react by lifting its ban on French foie gras exports.