Overview
- Haribo announced on September 23 that it will not run its annual chestnut-for-candy exchange in 2025 after consulting animal-health experts.
- The decision follows increased African swine fever detections in parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, where restriction zones have been set up.
- Veterinary guidance warns the virus can be indirectly transmitted via contaminated objects and natural materials such as chestnuts and acorns, threatening wild and domestic pigs but not humans.
- In place of accepting collected nuts, the company will provide financial support to wildlife parks to secure winter feed.
- The paused promotion is a long-running tradition that recently drew roughly 20,000 participants and yielded about 293 tonnes of nuts for donation.