Coronavirus: China’s food industry grapples with fresh disruption on fears of new Beijing outbreak
- China’s food service industry is facing fresh uncertainty after authorities stepped up scrutiny of imports in response to a new virus outbreak in Beijing
- A growing list of companies have either voluntarily halted exports to China or had products banned due to virus infections at meat processing plants around the world
After months of devastating lockdowns, Shenzhen-based restaurant chain Oyoyster had high hopes of a rush of sales for Father’s Day on Sunday.
But instead, what they got was turnover that failed to reach even the level of an ordinary weekend.
The cluster of infections prompted authorities in the capital to lock down parts of the city again and sparked nationwide suspicion about the safety of fresh food from overseas.
“The impact on our business was very direct,” said Athena Lin, marketing director at Oyoyster.
Suppliers have cut shipments due to declining demand, affecting the supply to stores
The company, which runs five restaurants in Shenzhen, is now grappling with weak consumer confidence and logistical delays that threaten to undermine a fragile recovery from lockdowns imposed to contain the virus at the beginning of the year.
“Suppliers have cut shipments due to declining demand, affecting the supply to stores,” Lin said. “And as the fall in revenue was a result of consumer panic, we have to halt many scheduled marketing activities.”
China’s General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday that Brazilian beef exporter Agra Agroindustrial De Alimentos S.A. and British pork plant Tulip had voluntarily halted exports to the country because of coronavirus infections.
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The two companies are the latest additions to a growing list of firms that have halted exports to China amid increased scrutiny.
Meat processing plants have emerged as hotspots for coronavirus around the world, pointing to the possibility of further restrictions on agricultural imports to China, a vast consumer market home to 1.4 billion people.
Nearly half the European Union’s pork exports in the first nine months of 2019 were shipped to the world’s second largest economy, according to the European Commission.
China has also promised to purchase US$36.5 billion worth of American farm products as part of its phase one trade deal with the United States.
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Customs checks would now cover almost all containers of imported frozen meat entering China, significantly slowing clearance times, business insiders said.
“The impact depends on the speed of disinfection and testing at ports,” said Zhang, a manager at Shanghai Imported Frozen Meat Customs Service.
“Many customers have cancelled their [import] orders as they are afraid,” added Zhang, who only gave his first name.
The businessman said he expected orders for imported meat to continue declining in the second half of the year, which would likely contribute to a spike in meat prices in China.
China relies on foreign meat to fill the gap in its domestic supply. It imported 1.77 million tonnes of pork and 690,000 tonnes of beef in the January-April period, up 170.4 per cent and 52.9 per cent respectively from a year ago, according to the Chinese customs data.
“In response to the recent cluster infections in Beijing, the customs department has noticed that people pay close attention to the safety of imported fresh food,” said Song Yueqian, deputy director of the health quarantine department at the agency last Friday.
Chinese customs recently sent letters to 42 countries asking authorities to strictly follow food safety guidelines jointly issued by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation.
Local authorities in China, meanwhile, have been told to monitor imported fresh agricultural products from high-risk virus areas, Song said.
While the FAO and World Organization for Animal Health had asked China not to restrict the international trade in food, the country will keep a prudent stance on imported products, Song added.
China’s customs agency tested 15,638 samples of imported food on June 18, all of which tested negative for the coronavirus.
Still, a flurry of cities across the nation have suspended sales on frozen meat and seafood over the past two weeks, while consumers have shown some hesitation in buying foreign food.
“I never really had enough in my budget to buy foreign food, but now I would not be willing to buy it,” said one Beijing resident who only gave his surname Zhang.
Chinese and Norwegian authorities have since concluded that Norwegian fish was not the likely source of the virus, while experts say the risk of coronavirus transmission in food is extremely low.
However, there was still opportunity for food to become contaminated through water, packaging and food processing, Li Fengqin, director of the Microbiology Laboratory at China’s National Food Safety Risk Assessment Centre, said on Tuesday.
