IARN — The U.S. Meat Export Federation says the Chinese government has imposed strict COVID-19 countermeasures in areas dealing with Delta variant outbreaks.
According to Joel Haggard – USMEF senior vice president for the Asia Pacific – China’s heightened restrictions have not had a significant impact on red meat demand, with most areas reporting normal restaurant traffic and consumer activity. But the situation has prompted some local authorities to step up cold storage facility inspections to ensure compliance with COVID protocols, raising concerns about shipping delays.
“There have been some reports of local authorities halting the sale of imported meat, but traders think these orders are transitory,” said Haggard. “One theory on why authorities are being extra strict is there has been some widespread media coverage about the reprimanding of the Nanjing officials over their handling of the initial Delta outbreak.”
“At the end of last week,” he continued, “China closed a section of it’s Ningbo port due to a single COVID case there. Ningbo is not a major conduit for US red meat imports, but any port closure – and Ningbo is the third largest in the world – is going to add to global shipping congestion woes. The situation is still very fluid but stepping back and looking at this Nanjing Delta outbreak in perspective, at the moment it looks like a speed bump rather than a major obstruction.”
Haggard added that the Ningbo port terminal closure further elevated concerns about container bottlenecks and vessel congestion in China, especially at the Port of Shanghai where some shipments destined for Ningbo were re-routed.
For more information, visit usmef.org.
