July 9, 2013

China stops New Zealand meat shipments for lack of certification

For the second time in two months, China held up meat imports from New Zealand at the Chinese port of Dalian due to the inability to produce required certificates, according to New Zealand Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye.

China has started enforcing new requirements, including certification that veterinarians were present at the last facility where the meat passed through before departure, as New Zealand discovered when a shipment was stopped on Thursday at the northern Chinese port of Dalian.

While New Zealand will adopt the new certification requirement starting Monday, Kaye and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy said in the joint statement, China is applying it to earlier shipments dating back to those that left New Zealand on June 1.

"I am working with officials over the weekend to make sure quick and effective implementation of the documentation for the current consignments," Kaye said. "We have worked on a pragmatic solution to enable current consignments to be cleared and trade to continue."

New Zealand said it will send letters of assurance to China for shipments en route, and predicted there could be delays-though of a few days only-on about a quarter of more than 1,300 shipments, or about 30,000 tonnes. Officials from China will visit next week to help implement the new certification, New Zealand added.

China impounded millions of dollars' worth of fresh and frozen meat from New Zealand in May as part of a nationwide food-safety crackdown following the revelation that some local meat and dairy products were contaminated. China's state news media has reported of cases in which meat sold as beef or mutton was actually fox, mink or even rat.

Earlier this year Shanghai authorities raided a wholesale market and seized meat labelled "New Zealand Sliced Lamb" because they doubted its true origin. The value of New Zealand meat exports to China in the 12 months through April came to NZD674 million (US$520 million), more than twice that of the previous 12-month period.