Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 6/7/11

China has begun to impose new labeling requirements on imported meat products that will make shipping pork there a costly venture for U.S. processors, a U.S. Meat Export Federation said in a recent report.

Particularly problematic, said Thad Lively, the organization’s senior vice president for trade access, is China’s insistence that exporters weigh and label individual packages of pork. The requirement will be a disincentive for U.S. processors because China is a high-volume market, and most products are lower in value and do not generate high profit margins, he said.

“By and large we’re talking about very low-value items going in large quantities,” Lively said. “So to cover the cost of making some of the changes in the plant that would be required to literally meet these requirements as written … it’s going to be very difficult for companies to do that.”

China implemented the new rules on June 1. USMEF has been working with U.S. and Chinese trade officials for several months to reach a compromise, but thus far without success.

Though closed to U.S. beef, the Chinese market imported nearly 140 million pounds of U.S. pork and pork variety meat, valued at $94 million, in the first quarter of the year.

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