Suspended poultry supply to Hong Kong resumes
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-22 16:56

Poultry supply from Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, to Hong Kong, which had been suspended because of the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the Chinese mainland, was resumed on March 22.

The first truckload of fresh chicken products enters Hong Kong from Shenzhen on March 22. [newsphoto]

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said late on March 10 that it was ready to handle applications for importing frozen or fresh poultry meat products from the Chinese mainland starting from March 11, said sources from the Shenzhen City Bureau for Inspections and Quarantine.

On Sunday morning, Wenjindu Customs of Shenzhen received the first customs clearance report submitted by Shenzhen City Foodstuff Corporation to export 108,000 tons of frozen or fresh chickens worth 108,000 Hong Kong dollars to Hong Kong.

While three local export-oriented factories in Shenzhen began to process first batch of chickens destined for Hong Kong Sunday afternoon, inspection and quarantine workers of Shenzhen carried out strict inspection and quarantine to ensure the chickens were fully free of viruses of any sort.

Twenty-five factories in Guangdong, including eight in Shenzhen,have been chosen to process frozen chicken meat for supplying Hong Kong, while another 81 farms in the province have been registered for rearing live poultry to supply Hong Kong, of which 15 are in Shenzhen.

However, supply of poultry entrails is still banned from entering the Hong Kong market.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture on March 16 declared success in the fight against the bird flu with 9 million poultry being culled in the infected areas since the first bird flu case was confirmed in Dingdang Town, Long'an County of southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Jan. 27.