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China wholesale food markets get back to business | FOOD2CHINA NEWS
Post Time:2020-08-17Author:FOOD2CHINA -- Nina Nip

The seafood sector is tentatively resuming operations in part of China with enhanced safety measures even as increasingly frequent cases of viral contamination occur among imported frozen seafood shipments. 

However, industry insiders still fear policy uncertainties over flare-ups, which can cause tens of millions of dollars of losses.

On Thursday, Beijing health authorities announced that Xinfadi wholesale food market will reopen from Saturday, after having been shut in June. But it will not welcome individual customers for the moment, and all buyers and sellers will have to register with the market. 

Jingshen, another big market in Beijing, also announced its reopening Thursday, but it will only be open between 8 pm and 7:30 am, according to a business owner who operates in the market.

According to Wu, his store in Jingshen market has been shut for over a month, but he resumed his online sales at the end of July, and he has his stock tested weekly by health authorities.  

"Around 5 percent of our stock is tested for COVID-19 each time," Wu said, "and each purchase and sales shipment has to be registered with the market and the government department."

In addition, all his staff must get regular tests. According to Wu, there have been four tests since the middle of June.

The reopening of the markets has been long awaited, but the increasingly frequent positive results for imports of frozen products, most of which involve seafood, remain a constant worry among business owners. 


On the day before the announcement of the market re-openings, the fourth positive COVID-19 result involving imported frozen food this month was found in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on the packaging of frozen white shrimps from Ecuador. On Wednesday, another positive result was reported from Wuhu, East China's Anhui Province, also from Ecuadorian shrimp packaging.

Chinese authorities resumed imports from an Ecuadorian white shrimp exporter Monday, after suspending its products when positive results were found on its packaging in early July. The other two banned exporters are also reported to be on track to reopen their business in China, according to local media outlets. 

Despite the gradual sales resumption, the imported seafood market has been largely crippled by the previous COVID-19 outbreak. According to Wu, almost half of the seafood retailers have left the Jingshen seafood market since the outbreak of the coronavirus, and half of them have left the industry entirely.

Fan Xubing, president of Beijing Seabridge Marketing, a leading importer of shrimps, said he is still worried about the future, and a single ban on a product can lead to tens of millions of dollars of losses. 

"Back at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, the outbreak at the Wuhan seafood market already had some impact on seafood sales," Fan said. "Salmon and shrimp sales were seriously affected later on."

For large seafood importers, a ban on any of their products means almost infinite risks to their business and a surge of costs for inventory and labor. 

A manager surnamed Yang from a large seafood import company based in North China's Hebei Province said that during the ban on the three Ecuadorian shrimp exporters, his clients refused to accept any of his Ecuadorian shrimp products, although they had all been tested.

"Our products were stranded at the port in Tianjin," Yang said. "We needed to pay 1.2 million yuan ($34,558) per month for the inventory in addition to the 240,000 yuan for staff salaries."


souce: Global Times

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