The Government will not prohibit the entry of pigs from outside the Balearic Islands.

PalmAlthough no outbreaks have yet been detected in the Balearic Islands, the Pthis African Swine African swine fever (ASF) is a concern for the primary sector and the government. The Balearic meat sector is heavily dependent on pork imports from Catalonia, where outbreaks of the disease have been detected, to process its products. Recently, the general secretary of Unió de Pagesos (UP), Sebastià Ordines, stated that "closing and protecting the borders from live animals is the best option to prevent any introduction of health problems to the Islands." However, the Balearic government is clear that it will not limit or prohibit the entry of pigs from outside the islands because "there are no health reasons to do so," according to the Director General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández. Fernández justifies this by saying that "the restricted area for animal movement and the protocol are clear." "There are no health reasons to restrict or limit their trade," he adds. It also warns that implementing measures to limit the marketing and entry of this product into the Balearic Islands, besides being impossible due to European Union regulations, would have a "boomerang effect" on local companies in this sector. In this regard, it points out that there is a company in the Islands that transports 1,500 piglets a week to Catalonia, and any restrictions on trade with the Spanish mainland would also negatively impact this company. Despite the Balearic Government's refusal, some meat companies in the Islands have already begun to curb the import of live pigs from Catalonia as a precaution, following the outbreak detected in Barcelona.

In addition to existing state regulations, the regional government developed a plan in early December to control the disease in the Balearic Islands, where there are currently 32 high-risk farms, according to the farm classification data based on risk level included in the government document. Besides this classification, the plan includes measures such as geolocating pig farms, verifying animal movements through movement permits—thus monitoring how and when animals enter the Islands—and coordinating with Catalonia to ensure all animals arrive with the necessary permits, among others. The director general assures that some requirements are being fully met: he points out that all 2,700 pig farms in the Balearic Islands are geolocated. Regarding testing, 670 tests were carried out in 2025, and only one yielded an inconclusive result. Therefore, the government repeated the tests and resubmitted all samples for review.

Union of Pages He had already called for a "shield plan" against the threat of African swine fever (ASF). However, Fernández admits that this project wasn't launched specifically because of the sector's demands, but because "they were the logical measures that had to be implemented to deal with a health crisis of this kind." Fernández asserts that the government's shield plan incorporates "90% of the sector's requests."