Chinese poultry meat makes comeback in European Union

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-02 22:04

The EU banned imports of Chinese poultry meat following the outbreak of bird flu on the Chinese mainland in 2004.

"Now we can detect a drop of nitrofuran in a full swimming pool," said quality control manager Lu Yongsheng of Xinchang Meat Co., Ltd., one of the nine Shandong companies. Lu's company invested heavily to upgrade detection instruments.

Xinchang puts a code on every package of its products, which contains information on the production date, place of origin and codes of slaughter houses and farms, enabling the company to establish a specific link in case of problems.

Xinchang sends drugs to national labs for chemical examination before they are used and keeps the drug packages for at least three years.

The EU is one of the major markets for poultry meat consumption with an annual import total of 700,000 tons.

Shandong exported US$430 million worth of poultry meat last year, accounting for half of the national figure. Its export of heat treated poultry meat, valued at US$330 million last year, accounts for 60 percent of the nation's exports.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, China registered a deficit of US$7.57 billion in the foreign trade of agricultural products in the first five months of this year, 14.3 times more than a year earlier.

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