March 23, 2007

China's Henan chicken makes its mark in Latin America

Chile has approved the registration of products from Henan's Yongda Food Group in the country, marking the first time a Latin American country has allowed processed chicken from China.

Yongda Food Co. Ltd is one of the top agricultural processing company in Henan province. Yongda is the only poultry processing company in mid-western China whose exports are exempted from inspections. It is currently exporting to Japan and South Korea.

According to Henan's Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, all fresh and frozen poultry products from the company passed its recent safety and hygiene inspection and met requirements for allowed antibiotic residue limits. The recent inspection of 14 shipments from 13 other companies in the province yielded the same results.

Companies engaged in the sale of fresh and frozen poultry products in Henan province are usually the large to mid sized companies. The large-scale production systems of these companies ensured higher safety standards through stricter inspection procedures, the bureau said.

Moreover, most of the companies are integrators who source chickens from their own breeding farms with uniform systems for the production chain from feed to meat, thus providing a higher degree of assurance on food safety.