Despite the mad cow crisis involving beef from the United
States, it seems that consumers in China have no reason to worry
about the disease.
According to Zhang Zhongqiu, vice director of the stockbreeding
and veterinary bureau under the Ministry of
Agriculture, there is no case of mad cow disease found in
China.
Experts and restaurant representatives say Chinese consumers can
feel free to eat beef in the Chinese market, because the market
share of US beef is very limited.
According to China Cuisine Association representative Bo Wen,
most restaurants in the country use domestic beef and there are
only a small number of recognized hotels and western restaurants
that cook US beef.
A staff at one of the three TGI Friday restaurants in Beijing
said the restaurant has stopped the use of US beef and it now cooks
domestic and Australian beef.
He added that the news of US mad cow disease does not affect the
business of the restaurants.
Ma Qiang, a representative from the US-based Outback Steak House
in China, said beef cooked at all of the company's two restaurants
in Beijing is from Australia.
On December 25, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
announced a ban on imports of US beef and beef-related products
after the United States reported its first case of mad cow
disease.
Since then, authorities across the country have been taking
measures to stop US beef from entering the country and cleaning up
the US beef existing in the Chinese market.
And according to media reports across the country, sales of US
beef have been stopped in markets of all kinds.
By December 31, the Beijing station for veterinary and health
supervision and inspection, after inspecting refrigerators that
have a capacity of more than 5,000 tons, had sealed off more than
185 tons of beef and beef-related products.
Sources with the station said the inspection is continuing and
the amount of beef sealed off could rise. But how to dispose of the
sealed beef is still unknown, the sources said.
China reportedly imported 8,400 tons of beef from the United
States in 2002, and in the first 10 months of last year the amount
was 4,300 tons.
The annual consumption of beef in China is about 6.9 million
tons.
(China Daily January 8, 2004)