China’s meat trade applauded the imminent end of testing and sanitizing chilled and frozen food for COVID-19 on Friday, more than two years after Beijing began the controversial practice, adding substantial costs to the trade.
The State Administration for Market Regulation will stop testing refrigerated and frozen foods for COVID-19 from January 8, according to a notice seen by Reuters and confirmed by the agency.
Nor will it require all imported refrigerated and frozen foods to enter centralized warehouses for disinfection and analysis before reaching the domestic market.
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The abandonment of the measures follows a similar announcement by the customs authority on Wednesday that it will stop testing cold-chain foods arriving at the country’s ports.
“This policy means that we will have much lower costs and risks in both storage and transportation of product,” said a Beijing-based meat importer who buys beef and pork from the United States and other countries.
A staff member collects shellfish samples for COVID-19 testing on January 19, 2021 in Lianyungang, China.
(Si Wei/VCG via Getty Images)
Having imposed the world’s strictest COVID regime of relentless lockdowns and testing for three years, China reversed course this month on living with the virus, though new infections have soared.
China began testing chilled and frozen food imports for COVID in 2020 after an outbreak of the disease at a wholesale market led authorities to believe the virus had spread from imported goods.
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The practice was controversial with trading partners and significantly slowed the shipment of food to China, the world’s top buyer of meat and many other perishable goods.
It also raised costs for both importers and exporters.
“The cancellation of the testing and disinfection requirements will definitely benefit the meat trade in terms of reducing additional costs and speeding up the movement of goods,” said Huang Juhui, founder of Beijing Means Consulting Co.
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COVID testing and disinfection, moving goods from the port to central storage, delays, electricity and centralized storage costs can add up to 30,000 yuan ($4,321) per container and take up to 30 days, Huang said. .
“The reported end of COVID testing and sanitization of imported meat at ports and at market distribution points will be an encouraging step toward a resumption of normal trade,” said Joel Haggard, senior vice president for the region of Asia Pacific in US Meat. Federation of Exporters.
