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Beef Sales Remain Stagnant
Although China is free from mad cow disease, which has swept Europe and many other countries in the last several months, the country's beef exports have not benefitted.
Customs statistics indicate China's exports of frozen beef decreased 10.6 per cent year-on-year to 20,000 tons last year.
The amount fell a further 18.9 per cent from the same period last year this January.
Customs officials also said that China's exports of live cattle were negligible.
Since the first case of mad cow disease was detected in Britain in 1985, it has spread quickly to other parts of the world.
It has been reported that the disease has now been found in all 15 European Union member countries apart from Finland, Austria and Greece.
A report by the United Nations on February 7 said more than 100 countries and regions were threatened by mad cow disease.
But China has escaped the pandemic thanks to the fact that it mainly uses plants as cattle feed.
The Ministry of Agriculture declared on February 14 that China was free from mad cow disease after carrying out careful examinations of imported cattle and their offspring as well as cattle bred from imported seeds and embryos.
This has not, however, increased China's cattle and beef exports as many had expected.
An official with the Ministry of Agriculture said that after the latest outbreak of mad cow disease in Europe, European people had became afraid of beef and reduced their beef consumption, and that partly explains why China's beef exports were not increasing.
A business insider added that the flavour of China's beef was different from that in the West, which meant that it was not popular there.
He added that although China has been successful in controlling mad cow disease, many of its sanitation and epidemic-prevention standards for food are lower than international criteria and its food management measures do not conform with international practices.
Some domestic newspapers have criticized Chinese companies for not being good at grasping market opportunities and lacking awareness of market competition.
Wang Zhiliang, board director of the Dahuan Meat Co Ltd, denied the media's accusations and said Chinese companies were always seeking to expand exports.
But he was quoted by a domestic newspaper as saying that the mad cow disease pandemic was more of a disaster to the company than a blessing, as domestic companies were vying for the emerging global market gap by offering extraordinarily low prices.
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