Lift ban on chicken: Official

A senior official involved in the safety of food for import and export yesterday appealed to the European Commission (EC) to consider reopening its markets to Chinese cooked chicken after a ban of nearly five years.

Li Yuanping, director-general of the bureau of imports and exports food safety under the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said: "No exporters of cooked chicken that are registered with the quarantine department have had any cases of bird flu, and they have been keeping good records.

"Cooked chicken products from China are first-class," Li said.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing last Tuesday, Robert Madelin, the EC's director-general for health and consumer protection, said: "The commission will meet with member states at the beginning of June to begin a process to open up trade, and the final decision is likely to be made in the autumn.

"In the case of chicken, we are satisfied with the animal-health procedures taken in provinces that are interested in exporting to the EU, especially Shandong, the major province for poultry meat exports."

Li said China had made considerable efforts to enhance safety procedures for exported food products over the past several years.

All major companies exporting frozen prepared food have established their own raw material production bases, where vegetables and poultry raising follows internationally recognized standards with rigorous breeding and quality records.

In addition, the AQSIQ has introduced 10 self-discipline regulations for export companies, covering such things as supervision rules for raw products, processing factories and enterprise credit construction.

Li was talking yesterday during an annual review of food and agricultural product exports to Japan, the largest market for farm produce.

Last May, Japan introduced its "Positive List System for Agricultural Chemical Residues", known to be the strictest system in the world and containing 53,862 residue limitation items.

However, thanks to the introduction of a range of control measures, China saw the value of its exports of food and agricultural products for the period between last June and this March grow to $6.8 billion, up 3.3 percent year on year, Li said.

Li Yongqiang, an information officer with the Shandong Longda Foodstuff Group Co Ltd, said the company had enjoyed export growth in both value and volume terms. During the first four months of this year, the value of its exports to Japan has risen to $65 million.