Hong Kong suspends poultry imports from Norway's Rogaland and the Scottish Borders after H5N1

Hong Kong suspended poultry meat and egg imports from two European regions on 5 November 2026 after H5N1 outbreaks - the first concrete access restriction of the northern winter, and a reminder that approval can narrow region by region within days.

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Hong Kong SAR Government announced on 5 November 2026 that, in view of notifications from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) about outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Rogaland County in Norway and the Scottish Borders of Scotland in the United Kingdom, it had instructed the trade to suspend imports of poultry meat and poultry products, including poultry eggs, from those areas with immediate effect.

The trade involved is small. Hong Kong has a protocol with Norway for poultry meat but not for poultry eggs, and according to the Census and Statistics Department it imported about 20 tonnes of frozen poultry meat from Norway in the first nine months of 2026, alongside about 680 tonnes of chilled and frozen poultry meat and about 220,000 poultry eggs from the UK. The CFS said it had contacted the Norwegian and British authorities and would keep monitoring information from WOAH and the relevant authorities.

The restriction is drawn at regional level, not national: it names Rogaland County and the Scottish Borders, and leaves approvals for other regions of both countries untouched. That is now the standard construction of avian influenza measures, and it is the reason a single notification can invalidate a booking while the country's overall listing stays intact.

• What changed: immediate suspension of poultry meat and egg imports from Rogaland (Norway) and the Scottish Borders (UK), announced 5 November 2026.
• Why it matters beyond Hong Kong: the trigger is a WOAH notification, and the same notification is what Gulf, African and Asian regulators read when they update their own lists - usually within days, sometimes without a public announcement.
• Regional, not national: the measure is area-based, so the certificate has to name an establishment in a region that is still eligible on the date of shipment, not on the date of the order.
• Seasonal pattern: H5N1 notifications in Europe multiply as temperatures fall, which means the second half of November and December are when European origins carry the most documentary risk for buyers booking first-quarter volumes.

For importers the practical step is procedural rather than commercial: confirm at the time of booking, and again before shipment, that the establishment and the region named on the halal and veterinary certificates are still eligible for the destination market, and keep one alternative origin qualified so that a regional suspension does not turn into a supply gap. Nau International Food Group supplies halal frozen poultry and frozen meat from HACCP-certified, GACC-registered plants (establishment numbers 0900 / 03003), with halal, veterinary health and certificate of origin issued for each shipment, and arranges customs clearance into Dubai, including DDP Jebel Ali, on request. For specifications, packing data and current offers, write to info@naufoodgroup.com.

Source: Centre for Food Safety, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Hong Kong SAR Government, press release "Import of poultry meat and products from areas in Norway and UK suspended", 5 November 2026; WOAH notifications cited therein.