January 18, 2008

China seafood now safer after quality campaigns, yet pollution posts new challenge

The recent nationwide campaign to close shoddy seafood operations and ban the use of illegal drugs has significantly improved the quality and safety of Chinese seafood production, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

Officials said that last year, around 30,000 inspectors have worked across the country to extensively monitor seafood operators and enforce regulations such as the ban of antibiotics, like chloramphenicol and malachite green, believed to cause cancer.

However, officials from the ministry's fisheries bureau disclosed that pollution and water quality problems are surfacing as the biggest challenges to continuously ensure top quality in Chinese seafood.

Ding Xiaoming, the director of aquaculture in the fisheries bureau, said Tuesday that without good water quality, the country's aquaculture cannot develop.

Ding pointed that the country's rapid urbanization and industrialization was responsible for spoiling the environment and polluting waterways that are used by factory-style fish farms, a situation that experts said has forced some farmers to turn to illegal drugs.

The director had confirmed that regulators were having difficulty preventing polluters from damaging waterways used by fish farmers because much of the pollution occurs gradually.

Despite food safety worries, China said its seafood exports still grew to a record US$8.7 billion through November 2007, although the rate of growth slowed by 4 percent from 19 percent a year earlier.