Romania will be able to export frozen pork meat to China following the Chinese approval of recording the first pork meat producing company, Smithfield Romania, Romanian Ministry of Agriculture Daniel Constantine announced.
The State Administration for the Supervision of Certification and Accreditation in China officially informed Romania about the approval to register the Romanian company and said that exports of frozen pork meat could start when the company is listed on the site of the Veterinary Health Authority of China.
Minister Constantin in 2014 signed last year a memorandum with his Chinese counterpart Han Changfu, on animal health and food safety, a document clarifying technical aspects on Romanian-Chinese collaboration in the veterinary field, food safety, meat control and inspection, according to a report from ActMedia.
Smithfield Romania announced in August 2014 that they expected Chinese authorities to complete the registration of the company’s slaughter house. The Chinese company WH Group, purchased U.S. company Smithfield Food, which has operations in Romania, in 2013. WH Group is the world’s largest pork producing company.
Smithfield administers a slaughter house based in Timisoara, within former company Comtim, one of the largest slaughter houses in Europe. It slaughters 3,500 pigs daily.
The opening of pork trade with Romania comes just weeks after another European company had been given access to export pigs and pork products to China. France was granted access to trade with China, and in early March French genetics company Nucleus imported 1,000 pigs into the Asian country.
