China suspends imports of some US chicken, shuts down Pepsi factory over COVID-19
China has suspended imports of poultry from a top American producer and ordered shutdown of a Beijing Pepsi factory, saying both factories have been hit by the COVID-19 contagious disease.
China’s General Administration of Customs said in a statement on Sunday that imports of frozen chicken from a plant owned by US-based meat processer giant Tyson Foods had been “temporarily suspended” after the company confirmed a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the plant, located in Springdale, Arizona.
The customs added that products from the firm that had already arrived in the Asian country would be confiscated.
American food and drinks giant PepsiCo was also ordered to close one of its snack-making plants in capital Beijing after a number of its employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus, company spokeswoman Fan Zhimin said, adding that 87 close contacts had been traced and quarantined.
The Chinese government has boosted its oversight of imported foods after a new cluster of COVID-19 cases were traced to chopping boards used to handle imported salmon at Xinfadi, a sprawling wholesale food market in Beijing, just over a week ago.
The market supplies over 70 percent of the capital’s fresh produce.
According to China’s health officials, Beijing’s new outbreak of COVID-19 has also spread to Tongzhou, the administrative hub in the capital, where key government offices are situated.
China started testing meat, seafood and fresh products for the new coronavirus last week and a number of ports even began opening all containers of meat to conduct coronavirus tests.
The customs on Friday requested food exporters to sign a declaration that their produce is not contaminated by the novel coronavirus.
China increased the imports of US poultry in November last year, when Beijing ended an almost five-year ban on the trade.
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