July 28, 2006
Australian company aims to open up animal identification market in China
Traceability systems are generating strong interest in China as the meat processing sector grows and consumers become more concerned by food safety, Thorsys, an Australian company specialising in IT traceability systems for the food industry said Thursday (Jul 27).
The company said the larger Chinese meat processors are keen to adopt traceability in their production, while a growing number of supermarkets also supported the move.
The company, promoting its services at the China International Meat Industry exhibition in Beijing, said it hopes to set up a trial project to convince the government to support tracing systems by the end of this year.
China's current systems involve just hand-written cattle tags and paper records.
Kent Matla, China representative for the firm said that bird flu and other animal diseases have raised concerns about food safety on the government levels.
China's meat production has risen rapidly in recent years. It now accounts for 71 percent of the total meat production in Asia. As urbanisation forces more people to shop in supermarkets, there would be more calls for traceability, he said.
Currently, small-scale producers hold 80 percent of the meat-processing market in China. The country's large and medium meat processors are expected to grow and account for 70 percent of the market by 2020.
The ease of implementing a traceability system in large integrated operations such as Shineway and the Yurun group, explains their interest, he said.
Thorsys develops software that uses barcodes to track the life of a cow through to the processing stage and its delivery.
While some companies might wait for the government's endorsement, others may want to implement it ahead of others to gain a competitive edge, Matla said.
Furthermore, if China is keen on exporting high quality beef overseas it would need to improve traceability to meet stringent requirements, Matla said.
