May 10, 2012

 

 

China's quarantine bureau has rejected a consignment of US pork due to detected traces of a banned drug in meat shipments, totalling 103.5 tonnes.

 

The March shipments of frozen pork meat and pig parts were found to contain ractopamine, which is banned in China, but is used in some countries, including the US, as a feed additive to make meat leaner.

 

In December, the bureau rejected entry of 23.5 tonnes of US pork for the same reason.

 

If a rash of such cases were to be found over time, China could in theory impose more restrictive barriers to US imports, but the amounts involved are tiny compared with its overall import volume and imports also help Beijing moderate domestic food inflation.

 

A slowdown in pork purchases by China, the world's biggest producer and consumer of the meat, could add pressure on US hog futures, which this week slid to the lowest price since September.

 

China's pork imports from the US climbed more than three-fold in 2011, but some US meat industry executives say China could reduce its imports this year as Chinese domestic production rises, which has pressured local prices and made foreign imports less competitive.

 

In the latest case, the quarantine bureau identified the US suppliers as Smithfield Packing Company Inc., Alacra Foods Inc. and Pine Ridge Farms LLC, according to the bureau's statement issued monthly on a range of imported products which were tested not qualified for entry.

 

Despite China's ban on the use of ractopamine, traces of the additive have also been found in some domestic supplies.

 

In March 2011 , authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan closed 16 pig farms and sealed 134 tonnes of pork products after the drug was reportedly used to produce lean meat, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

 

China, which accounts for half of the world's pork consumption of around 100 million tonnes, has since 2008 lifted imports of the staple meat after short supplies at home pushed prices to a record high. The price rise was driven by frequent outbreaks of pig diseases and rising consumption.

 

Pork imports in 2011 jumped 132% on year to 467,660 tonnes, of which a majority came from the US, according to China's official Customs data. But still, the imports only represented a small part given the country's annual pork production at 50 million tonnes in 2011.