Coronavirus found on shrimp packaging from Ecuador, China suspends imports from 23 meat companies

The coronavirus has been found on packages and the inner wall of a container of frozen shrimps imported from Ecuador on July 3, said Bi Kexin, head of the import and export food safety bureau of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) at a press conference on Friday.

He noted that the nucleic acid tests on the shrimp bodies and inner packages showed negative results.

On the same day, the GAC announced the suspension of imports from three Ecuadorian companies due to the risk of the novel coronavirus.

Three companies include "Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila S.A., Empacreci S.A., and Empacadora Del Pacifico Sociedad Anonima Edpacif S.A.", GAC said in a statement on its official website, adding that the coronavirus was found on the outer packaging of their goods.

Meanwhile, the shrimps produced by these companies after March 12 to be recalled or destroyed.

According to the statistics from China's Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance, nearly 30,000 tons of shrimp were exported from Ecuador to China during March this year.

To prevent the risk of the COVID-19 epidemic through imported cold chain foods into the country, the Chinese customs conducted the coronavirus detection works on the imports of cold chain products.

So far, the GAC has suspended imports of products from 23 overseas meat companies. Many countries and companies are actively cooperating with China. The customs authority said that 10 of them had suspended their exports to China spontaneously according to Chinese requirements.