Skip to main content

Anti-U.S. Food Safety Propaganda

On September 27, the Ministry of Commerce issued documents announcing an antidumping investigation of imported chicken products originating in the United States. The investigation covers broiler products of chicken products. In case you're wondering, this includes HS codes 02071100、02071200、02071311、02071319、02071321、02071329、02071411、02071419、02071421、02071422、02071429 and 05040021。

On September 30, an article posted by the National Food Quality and Safety Supervision and Testing Center trumpets "Emerging Problems with Imported Food From the United States." A google search shows the article was carried on dozens of Chinese web sites.

According to the article, testing by Chinese inspection officials have been catching an increasing number of food products from the United States. Of a 154-name “black list”, 39 problem products came from the United States. Of those, 12 were frozen pork and frozen chicken meat. "Lean meat powder" (probably ractopamine which is legal in the U.S.; in China this term usually refers to clenbuterol) was detected in some frozen pork and pig feet, and staphylococcus aureus and nitrofurazone were found on some chicken. These contaminants are frequently found in US exported products.

Companies like Mead Johnson, Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Proctor and Gamble are on the “black list.” The article says, statistics clearly show that problems with America food quality are rising.

After the domestic dairy industry crisis, how can more food safety problems becoming from America? A knowledgeable person about the industry in southern China says, “The financial crisis is putting cost pressure on American food industry. Companies are cutting corners on raw materials and internal quality control to save on costs. This trend directly affects the quality of American food.”

"That’s not all," says the expert. “What’s worse is that some companies are using cheaper ingredients to substitute for usual ones. Worse yet, some companies are sending ‘garbage’ that won’t pass U.S. quality inspections to sell in the Chinese market.”

Sounds to me like he's reading from the Chinese manufacturer's instruction manual.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Xi Jinping's Doctoral Thesis

Xi Jinping is the vice president and presumed next president of China but little is known about him. In this post the dimsums blog offers its contribution to the genre of Xi Jinping-ology by conveying Xi's decade-old views on agricultural markets. Ten years ago Xi Jinping wrote a thesis, "Tentative Study of Agricultural Marketization" (中国农村市场化研究) for a Doctor of Law degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing, a top breeding-ground for Chinese officials. The dimsums blogger has spent several hours poring over the 200-plus page tome to see what it reveals about Dr. Xi. The thesis is remarkably close to what China has been doing lately in agricultural policy, suggesting that Xi (or the person who actually wrote the thesis) has a major say in policy or is at least in agreement with what's being done. There is nothing adventurous, controversial (or insightful) in the thesis. It seems to be the work of a wonkish technocrat who is not prone to talk out of turn or wander from...

Divergence in U.S. & Chinese egg prices

High egg prices are a hot topic in the United States. China, in contrast, has a glut of eggs and depressed prices.  The March 14, 2025 USDA Agricultural Marketing Service weekly eggs market overview reported that U.S. egg prices continued declining during the second week of March as the supply situation improved. No significant highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks have occurred in March and U.S. egg demand is relatively light. The average U.S. wholesale price for Grade A large white eggs was $4.15 per dozen, down sharply from their February peak.  Until 2021, Chinese and U.S. wholesale egg prices had been roughly equal at about $1-to-$2 per dozen with no trend. U.S. prices fluctuated more than Chinese prices, so the U.S. price was sometimes higher, sometimes lower than the Chinese price after converting them to dollars per dozen.  Chinese prices converted using monthly exchange rate and assuming 0.6 kg per dozen. Sources: USDA and China Ministry of Agricult...

China's Corn & Wheat Imports Down 97% From Last Year

China's first customs data for 2025 feature a 97-percent decline in corn and wheat imports from a year earlier. Soybean imports were up slightly by volume (but down in value), and dairy, pork, poultry, and seafood imports rebounded year-on-year. Life was less sweet in China with a 93.7% decline in sugar imports, and drinking appears to be up as wine and beer imports posted gains.   China's agricultural imports for January-February 2025 were down 14.7 percent from a year earlier. The value of farm and food goods imported for the first two months of 2025 totaled $30.7 billion, down $5.26 billion from the same period in 2024. China's exports of agricultural products during January-February totaled $15.2 billion, up $393 million from a year earlier.  Data from China Customs Administration website. As usual, soybeans were the largest component of China's agricultural imports during January-February 2025 with a value of $6.3 billion. Meat imports were valued at $4.1 billion, ...