Chinese port suspends import of frozen food from 10 Asian states

Cashless payment platforms through smartphone-enabled QR codes are ubiquitous in China, expanding to a US$12.8 trillion market as at the end of October in 2017. Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay are the two dominant service providers. Here a seafood hawker in Beijing announces he accepts both payment methods, on 9 August 2017. Photo: EPA. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

HANOI, Jun 14, 2021, VN Express. A port in China’s Guangdong Province has temporarily suspended frozen food imports from Vietnam and 10 other Asian countries since Covid-19 prevention measures have hit its loading capacity, VN Express reported.

Zhanjiang Port operator Zhanjiang Port Zhanjiang Port Group Co., Ltd, decided to suspend imports of frozen food, mostly seafood, from Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Mongolia from June 20 to July 15.

Vietnam’s National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) said: “Suspension of imports of frozen products from 11 Asian countries is a decision by the port operator. No such decision has been made by Guangdong Province or the Chinese government.”

The port’s cargo loading capacity has been affected by pandemic prevention measures for staff and workers, it said. Due to a surge in Covid in Guangdong since late May, many cities in the province, including Zhanjiang, have strengthened Covid-19 prevention measures at ports, it said.

It urged seafood processing and exporting firms to keep in touch with importers there to keep abreast of the situation.

It also called on the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers to notify its members of the port’s frozen food ban.

Vietnam exported US$2.49 billion worth of seafood in the first four months of 2021, up 11.6 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistic Office.

Exports to China were worth $253 million.

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