October 4, 2004
Argentina Says China Has Not Rejected Soybean Shipment
Chinese officials have not rejected a shipment of Argentine soybeans, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Thursday, trying to dispel local media reports to the contrary.
"Chinese sanitary authorities confirmed to the Argentine embassy in that country that no shipment of soybeans from Argentina has been prevented from disembarking at any port in China," the statement said.
The statement came as the ministry sought to clarify reports that Chinese officials had found fungicide-tainted soybeans in a shipment from Argentina.
China's official Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday that health officials there had screened the problematic beans and planned to burn them to prevent their entry into the Chinese market.
However, it was not immediately clear what percentage of the cargo had been tainted or what authorities would do with the unaffected beans.
Argentina's foreign ministry said officials at China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, or AQSIQ, were in the process of unloading the ship's cargo on Thursday.
"Only after this has been done will they carry out the relevant risk analysis (on the tainted beans in the Argentine cargo)," the statement said.
The entire shipment contained soybeans worth almost $17 million, according to Xinhua.
AQSIQ found carboxin and captan, fungicides used to treat soybean seeds and known to be harmful to humans and animals alike, Xinhua reported.
The questionable cargo was found in the southern Chinese port of Huangpu. It was the first time China has detected problems with fungicide in an Argentine shipment, according to Xinhua.
Earlier this year, China rejected five shipments of Brazilian soybeans, saying the cargoes had been infected by carboxin.
China, the world's top soybean importer, uses soybeans mainly for crushing to produce edible oil for consumers and soybean meal for animal feed.
About two-thirds of Argentina's soybean exports went to China last year.
