China bans US poultry and eggs because of avian influenza

The Chinese government will ban all imports of U.S. poultry and egg products because of recent detections in the U.S. of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in backyard poultry and wild birds in the Pacific Northwest.
In a joint announcement posted on official websites in China, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) imposed nationwide restrictions on imports of processed and unprocessed U.S. poultry and eggs, effective January 8. The ban also applies to breeding stock, which includes live chicks and hatching eggs.
The ban is in response to a December detection of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N8 influenza in wild birds and in a backyard flock of guinea hens and chickens in Oregon, along with separate H5N2 HPAI detections in wild birds in California and Washington State. MOA and AQSIQ imposed the restrictions despite assurances by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that the influenza virus has not been found in any commercial poultry flock in the U.S.
China is a key export market for U.S. chicken, turkey and duck products. From January through November last year, U.S. exports to China reached nearly $290 million.
For China to impose a nationwide ban in response to isolated incidents of HPAI goes against international guidelines established by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), according to the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC). In its Terrestrial Animal Health Code, the OIE recommends that countries adopt a regionalized approach to HPAI incidents to minimize the impact on trade.
APHIS notified the OIE of the Oregon detection, as required. “USDA expects trading partners to respond to this reported detection according to the OIE’s science-based standards,” the agency said in a statement following the Oregon H5N8 detection.
The statement stressed that the virus was contained to the affected premises and has not been found in commercial poultry. APHIS also said that state and federal officials have increased ongoing surveillance of commercial poultry and backyard flocks in the Pacific Northwest.
The agency noted that commercial producers “follow strict biosecurity practices and raise their birds in controlled environments,” which lessens the possibility of an outbreak HPAI in commercial flocks, and that poultry is safe to eat if properly handled and cooked.
“There’s absolutely no justification for China to take such a drastic action,” said Jim Sumner, president of the USAPEEC. “In fact, these isolated and remote incidents are hundreds if not thousands of miles away from major poultry and egg production areas.
“Most all of our other trading partners have taken some sort of regionalized approach, and have limited their restrictions to the state or, in some cases, to the county,” he said. “We would have expected China to do the same.”
China’s nationwide restrictions could also have a negative impact on its domestic poultry industry, Sumner said. “Since the ban also includes U.S. breeding stock, China is cutting off its industry’s main source of hatching eggs and chicks, which will curtail the industry’s ability to replenish and maintain its production.”

Poultry from New Jersey banned from Hong Kong

Hong Kong has banned the import of poultry meat and products from New Jersey after an outbreak of low pathogenic H7 avian influenza was detected in New Jersey’s Salem County. The ban was announced by Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the outbreak occurred at a breeding farm and hunting preserve that is home of about 40,000 mallard ducks and between 7,000 and 8,000 pheasants.
The outbreak is being investigated by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
OIE reported that there have been no clinical signs of illness or increased mortality on the premises, and that there are no commercial poultry farms within a five mile radius of where the outbreak occurred. Despite that, the Hong Kong food safety agency implemented the ban on New Jersey poultry.
“We will be in close liaison with the U.S. authorities over the issue and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE o avian influenza outbreaks in the country. Appropriate action will be taken in response to the development of the situation,” an agency spokesman said, according to a 7th Space report.

Perdue shipment to mark end of China ban on Virginia poultry

Leaders from Perdue Farms and the Commonwealth of Virginia expect to see chicken exports increase dramatically as China’s seven-year-old ban on poultry from Virginia comes to an end. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on June 17 announced that the first shipment of Virginia poultry to China since 2007 – chicken wing products from Perdue Farms -- will be leaving June 20.
McAuliffe, who was joined by Carlos Ayala, Perdue Foods international vice president, and Todd Haymore, Virginia secretary of agriculture and forestry, saw the poultry products being loaded at a Perdue cold storage facility in Norfolk. The shipment is expected to arrive in Shenzhen, China on August 3.
Perdue, Virginia anticipate uptick in poultry exports
Perdue expects that with the lifting of the ban, the company will increase its volumes shipped from Virginia to increase by about 35 percent, according to a press release issued by McAuliffe’s office.
Haymore believes the end to the Virginia poultry ban, which was implemented after a low pathogenic form of avian influenza was detected at a single Virginia turkey farm, will also greatly increase Virginia’s total poultry export numbers.
“We estimate conservatively that Virginia will see at least $20 million in poultry exports to China during the first full year the market is open, but we’re hoping to far exceed that number,” said Haymore. “We have great assets that will allow us to accomplish that goal including Virginia’s existing business with China, the governor’s commitment to expanding that business, our agricultural trade representative in Shanghai working to generate new sales leads and an aggressive poultry industry producing high-quality and wholesome products. I am confident that we have the infrastructure in place to quickly re-establish Virginia as one of China’s top poultry purchasers.”
Other Virginia industries to benefit from ban's end
McAuliffe added that the end to the ban will not only help the Virginia poultry trade, but also other industries within the commonwealth.
“The resumption of business means more trade and revenue generation opportunities for Virginia’s poultry industry and the many related businesses that work to move products from our family farms into the global marketplace. This will also bring significant benefits to the Port of Virginia, an entity that I want to become the East Coast capital for agricultural and forestry product exports,” he said. 

China’s ban on Virginia poultry ends

China has lifted a ban on poultry from Virginia that has been in place for seven years, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced. The ban was implemented in 2007 after a single case of avian influenza was reported in a Virginia turkey flock.
McAuliffe announced the removal of China’s ban on Virginia poultry during a luncheon on May 5, the Virginian-Pilot reported. China imposed bans on poultry from other states at the time, but it took longer for the Virginia ban to be lifted.
“For whatever reason, for seven years we could not remove it,” said McAuliffe, who had not yet been elected governor when the ban was enacted.
McAuliffe said the end of the Chinese ban on Virginia poultry could mean between $20 million and $25 million in annual sales for poultry farmers in Virginia.

China bans Arkansas poultry over avian influenza concerns

Poultry from Arkansas has been banned from China amid concerns of avian influenza in Arkansas. The ban comes more than a month after an incident where chickens at a farm in Boles, Ark., showed the presence of antibodies consistent with exposure to a low-pathogen form of H7N7 avian influenza during the week of June 17.
Toby Moore, vice president of communications for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, said the ban was surprising. To date, all that have been found are antibodies consistent with H7N7 avian influenza in Arkansas, and no virus has been isolated, Moore said. China's ban is counter to World Organisation for Animal Health guidelines, and has no scientific basis.
Preston Scroggin, director of the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission, was also surprised by the move, as he sees no health threat.
"Everything on our end is very good. We're not seeing any signs of problems after testing and retesting," said Scroggin.
All birds in the affected flock were euthanized, and all poultry within a 6.2-mile radius tested negative for avian influenza, Scroggin said. Crews from the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have since ended the quarantine, but they are still doing random testing in the area and working with the farm where the initial discovery was made.
Similar bans on Arkansas poultry were placed by Japan and Russia in late June. Hong Kong also banned poultry from Scott County, Ark., where the chickens tested for avian influenza were located.

China to restrict chicken imports from US

China may launch trade remedy measures against imported chicken from the United States, as China’s poultry industry has complained about the unfairly priced competition from U.S. exporters, said people familiar with the matter.
“We did propose import restriction of U.S. chicken to the country’s Ministry of Commerce,” Ma Chuang, vice-secretary general at Beijing-based China Animal Agriculture Association (CAAA), told Poultry International.
Although Mr. Ma declined to disclose more details, he says that the government takes the complaints seriously and is investigating this case now.
“We are not against Sino-US chicken trade. But we doubt that the U.S. is dumping chicken into the Chinese market,” said Mr. Ma.
“The price of imported chicken is normally 5-10% lower than that of Chinese chicken. So it is hard for local producers to compete with U.S. importers, especially in the situation that customers are sensitive to food prices during the global recession,” he explained.
In the first half year of 2009, China’s chicken output accounted for only 80% of its total capacity, due to weak domestic demand. To make the matter worse, an increasing number of cheap imported chickens were sold in China, and 70-80% of them are from the U.S., according to Mr. Ma.
The data from USDA shows the U.S. is the largest broiler meat exporter to China with more than 119 million tons of annual export volume last year, and this number is expected to reach 137 million tons by October 2009.

China bans meat imports from select US plants

China has banned meat imports from three U.S. pork plants and two poultry plants. Reuters quoted the USDA, reporting that no reasons had been given for this decision.
The pork plants are: Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, N.C.; the John Morrell & Co. pork plant, Sioux City, Iowa; and the Seaboard Foods pork plant at Guymon, Okla.
The poultry plants are: Equity Group-KY Division poultry plant at Albany, Ky.; and the Mountaire Farms poultry plant at Selbyville, Del.

WTO to investigate US/China poultry import ban

The World Trade Organization will establish an expert panel to look into whether a U.S. ban on the import of Chinese poultry violates international trade laws, as alleged by China, farmfutures.com reported.
The decision follows a meeting of the WTO's dispute settlement body after China filed a request the second time.
U.S. meat companies support lifting the ban as they fear China might retaliate by banning U.S. imports. Trade groups said Chinese importers had already begun blocking shipments of U.S. chicken.
A statement posted on the Internet by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative's says: "We do not agree with China's assertions that the issue amounts to a discriminatory or protectionist measure.
"As we have stated, nothing in the measure identified by China prevents the relevant U.S. authorities from continuing to work together to reach an objective, science-based response to China's request for a declaration of equivalence with respect to poultry products."

US meat companies condemn Chinese poultry ban

Companies within the U.S. meat sector recently asked Congress to remove a ban on Chinese poultry imports, according to a news report.
A coalition of meat companies, such as Tyson Foods, Cargill, Sanderson Farms, Pilgrim's Pride and Hormel Foods, and trade groups testified that U.S. law allows all the other 152 countries belonging to the World Trade Organization to apply to export meat to the U.S., and questioned the fairness of this to China.
China opened a WTO complaint regarding the ban, and earlier responded by halting the issuing of import permits for the U.S., worth nearly $700 million per year.
The ban initially was put into place because of safety and health risk concerns.

Congress urged to lift Chinese poultry embargo

A coalition of meat companies and trade groups has requested that the U.S. Congress lift the ban on Chinese poultry imports, according to a Reuters report. The colaition said that the move to single out the country was unfair and added that China could retaliate by stopping U.S. poultry imports. China is the largest importer of U.S. poultry.
The coalition includes Tyson Foods, JBS SA, Cargill Inc., Seaboard Corp., Sanderson Farms Inc., Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Smithfield Foods Inc., Hormel Foods Corp. and seed company Monsanto Co., and a several trade associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. China had filed a complaint with the WTO and reportedly stopped renewing import permits of U.S. poultry exporters.

China calls on WTO to end US poultry dispute

China appealed to the World Trade Organization on July 20 to rule on its complaint against the U.S. legislation that bans the import of Chinese poultry, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
China and the U.S. stopped imports of each other's poultry in 2004 over fears of the spread of bird flu. Imports of some U.S. poultry products to China have resumed since then but Chinese officials have complained that the U.S. continues to veto imports of Chinese poultry.
Xinhua news agency reported that China imported 580,000 metric tons of U.S. chicken products last year, accounting for 73.4% of all such imports.

China, US conflict over chicken

The U.S. and China are at odds over chicken after Beijing responded to an American ban on Chinese chicken that denys Chinese traders import permits for U.S. chicken, thereby effectively blocking poultry trade for the rest of 2009, according to a Reuters report.
The U.S. embargo on the import of Chinese poultry was imposed owing to food safety concerns. The measure, known as DeLauro amendment, was advocated by Representative Rosa DeLauro, the Democratic head of a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
In response to the ban, China has halted imports of U.S. chicken, about half of which are chicken feet widely used in the preparation of soups, stews and as snack items.

China's rumored poultry ban denied

USA Poultry & Egg Export Council's Toby Moore said they have word that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has asked importers to reduce the number of permits they issue by 70%, adding he had few other details.
Following the report, Chinese Minister Chen Jian was reported as saying the country's imports "are normal with orderly and stable prices."
Mike Giles of the Georgia Poultry Federation said he hopes the rumors aren't true and that the industry has suffered enough due to last year's sharply increased feed grain prices.
Last year, Chinese imports of U.S. poultry totaled $722 million.