China pork ban starts to hit US sausage industry

The ongoing Chinese ban on US pork has begun to hurt domestic sausage makers that depend on China's workforce to refine sausage casings that originate in the US.

China erected a ban on US pork last year due to concerns over the H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu. However, US and global health officials have repeatedly stressed that the virus cannot be transmitted by eating pork.

US companies make unrefined sausage casings from swine intestines and send those to China where the unfinished casings are processed to meet specific demands for sausage producers and then either sent back to the US or other international destinations, Coffield said.

She said about US$100 million worth of unfinished casings are traditionally sent to China for further processing every year and that 10%-12% of the sausages produced in the US rely on the China trade.

But Coffield does not blame China for the halt in trade as much as she does the USDA. China, she said has issued a directive that exempts pork-based sausage casings from the country's pork ban, but the USDA still will not provide export certificates for the US shipments to China.

USDA officials confirmed that US export certificates are indeed not being provided for the casings trade. The officials said the certificates are currently not being provided because casings are pork-based and China has a ban on pork, but the issue is being reassessed.