France tightens border checks on Swiss hay imports

France has tightened controls on animal-feed shipments to Switzerland to prevent illegal exports, SRF reported, citing a report by RTS. Demand for hay and other feed has risen sharply among farmers during this summer’s heat and drought.

A Swiss farmer was stopped earlier this week in Haut-Doubs, a French border region, while transporting hay without declaring it in advance. Animal feed, like all goods, must pass through customs. France requires an export declaration and says the border must be crossed at an open customs office.

Switzerland has allowed duty-free imports of animal feed since August. Previously, imports were subject to a rate of 4 Swiss francs per 100 kilograms. The federal government removed the tariff in response to this summer’s heatwaves.

“This is a central need for agriculture,” Donatella Del Vecchio, a spokesperson for the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, told RTS. She said the Federal Council had decided to ease import conditions, although the goods remain subject to 2.6 percent value added tax.

Many Swiss farmers also cultivate their own land in France. This is the case for almost one in 10 farmers from the Jura region. Their feed is considered Swiss and is covered by simplified procedures, meaning they pay neither customs duties nor value added tax.

François Monin, director of the Jura Chamber of Agriculture, said farmers from the Jura, Neuchâtel and the Vaud Jura cultivate land in France. Much of the imported feed enters Switzerland through rural border traffic, which is duty-free within a 10-kilometre strip along the border.

Monin estimated that 99 percent of farmers and traders who buy feed elsewhere in France and bring it into Switzerland comply with the rules. The farmer stopped this week was fined by French customs and required to resell the shipment within France.