China Food Safety Fall Out After Japan Gyoza Incident
22 02 2008China CIQ restricts exports
The China CIQ from the Rizhao district in Shandong province has taken independent action to prohibit all exports until they conduct an audit of all facilities in their geographic region. This is part of a fall out from the Japan methamidophos contaminated Gyoza problem that erupted a couple of weeks ago. It is said it will take 1 month for the Rizhao CIQ branch to audit all the facilities and weed out the facilities that are not qualified for exports of frozen vegetables. The Rizhao CIQ is taking protective action because if a problem does occur for exported product they will be the culprits since they certify product for export.
In Zhejiang province the CIQ has banned exports of frozen prepared food to Japan. They have also changed their policy for export of frozen vegetables to other countries. Now the exporting facility must notify Zhejiang CIQ when the product is packed and ready to export, at this time the CIQ will draw samples and either give their blessing or not for export. Some items such as mushrooms and asparagus from Zhejiang the CIQ will not allow to export at all. Broccoli and cauliflower are okay to export to USA but the product is short so it really doesn’t mean too much.
Each Provincial, regional or district CIQ office is independent and has the ability to make their own rules. As we see in Rizhao the policy is to perform audits, Zhejiang has their own restrictive measures in place. The CIQ feels the best way to prevent problems is not to ship. If no product is exported there is no possibility of repercussions.
Rumor has it that the current trend of prohibiting or curtailing exports will continue until President Hu visits Japan in April. This will probably apply more to Japanese exports but we could see the same happening for other countries such as US, Australia and Europe.
The question is how long this will last and will their be payoff to get your product approved by the CIQ for export?
Technorati Tags: Noon International, CIQ
