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“Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are sold in Thailand and in Iceland, are currently unable to enter the US market because of, I don’t know, some sort of food and drug administration restriction”

Boris Johnson, BBC interview after a breakfast meeting with US President Donald Trump

24 August 2019

Facts

The chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association told the Today programme that pork pies are not exported to Thailand or Iceland. Asked if Johnson was right, Matthew O’Callaghan said: “Not really. With all of these things there is a little bit of give and take. We don’t actually export to Thailand or Iceland. It is certainly available in Iceland the shop.”

Downing Street later claimed Johnson was right, and had been referring to a briefing note produced by the Department for International Trade based on information from the company Walker & Sons, which said small shipments were sent to Iceland, Thailand, Singapore and the Caribbean. But a spokeswoman for Walker & Sons said the company no longer exported pork pies. “We are entirely focused on the UK market,” she said. The company said it used to export a “tiny amount” to Singapore — but had not done so “for some time.”

Walker & Sons have not said they were unable to export their products to the US, as Johnson has claimed. Only that the “paperwork and procedures required is like nothing we have encountered when exporting elsewhere.”

Verdict

Another porky from Boris Johnson.

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