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Big bosses feast on fowl, prove quality
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Representatives from 100 of the nation's top poultry companies have dined
on fowl delicacies during an unprecedented all-chicken banquet at the grandiose
Great Hall of the People.
Saturday's event in Beijing has already become
known as a "gastronomic show of confidence."
The producers of half of
China's chicken used the evening to make a solemn promise that their products,
prepared in line with stringent hygiene standards, are safe.
At the
moment, as the lethal bird flu dampens some people's appetite for chicken,
China's poultry business leaders are appealing to the public to have faith in
them and start eating their products again.
"As the key enterprises
in the fowl sector, we've always attached utmost importance to the safety and
hygiene of our products," Wang Xiulin, president of the Deda Group in Northeast
China's Jilin Province, said in a statement signed by 99 other managers.
None of China's deadly bird flu cases have been reported in the modern
poultry farms belonging to the nation's 100 leading enterprises or in the
scattered courtyard farms of those who supply them, said Han Wei, president of
the Dalian Hanwei Group from Northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Rather, the avian flu has occurred mainly in small, privately owned
farms or in households, said Ning Yibao, director of the China Institute of
Veterinary Drug Control.
Han said that is testimony to the massive
technical and financial investment in quarantine and quality control that has
been carried out by China's poultry "bellwethers."
Ning assured
consumers that China's bird flu control measures have made it virtually
impossible for affected fowl to enter the market.
He said he hopes the
experience and expertise of the key poultry farms will be disseminated among
other firms and farmers.
The 100 poultry companies produced 51 per
cent of China's 6.6 million tons meat chicken last year. They are the major
suppliers of supermarkets, as well as the KFC and McDonald's fast food chains on
the mainland, said Cao Xumin, president of the China Chamber of Commerce for the
Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-Products.
To strengthen market footholds - and to break the ever rising technical
barriers some foreign countries have imposed on Chinese imports - the poultry
business has established a wholesome disease prevention, quarantine and quality
management system guaranteeing that it can provide top grade and safe products
to markets, Cao said.
As a result, China has exported US$1.7 billion
worth of chicken including 520,000 tons of frozen chicken meat, about 70 per
cent of which was contributed by the 100 leading poultry enterprises, according
to customs statistics.
"Largely due to consumers' inadequate
understanding of the epidemic, sales of both eggs and chickens have dropped by
half in many regions," said Jia Youling, a spokesman for the Ministry of
Agriculture on bird flu control.
Jia said he believed
the key poultry enterprises' promotion of product safety, plus the country's
easing epidemic situation, will prompt an increase in trade.
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(Editor:Caroline) (From:China Daily)
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