POSTED: 16 Jul 2015 12:02
Boxes of frozen beef ribs from the United States are unpacked on a side street at an industrial area in Hong Kong, before being hand-carried and smuggled across the border into mainland China (Reuters/Bobby Yip)
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HONG KONG: In a dusty industrial lot in northern Hong Kong, a group of travellers sheltered in the shade away from the pressing July heat, packing old cloth bags and backpacks with Styrofoam to protect a more precious cargo: smuggled meat.
Crowded amid the warehouses of Sheung Shui, a remote suburb near the mainland border, the group of around 30 men and women were shoving chunks of frozen American beef, banned in China, into their backpacks in a small alleyway on Sunday (July 12).
Police arrived and asked them to leave. The smugglers quickened their pace to squeeze one more slice of beef inside bags and load boxes onto trolleys. Some dropped chunks of frozen beef onto the ground in the 32 degrees Celsius heat (89.6 Fahrenheit).
A police officer told Reuters the beef was legally imported into Hong Kong, so he could not arrest anyone, even though he was aware they were ready to be illegally sneaked onto the mainland.
The part-time smugglers, known as "feet" within the trade, are part of an underground industry that has boomed since Beijing launched a crackdown on meat smuggling last year.
One smuggler, 36-year-old Alan Wong, who refused to speak on camera, told Reuters they used to use trucks, and smugglers could earn 200-300 yuan ($30-50) per trip, carrying perhaps 2 kilograms at a time.
Activist and spokesperson for the North District Parallel Imports Concern Group, Ronald Leung, said he has observed the smuggler's activity for over a year.
"They used to smuggle it (frozen meats) to the mainland using light vans or trucks. But because of crackdowns, now they use manual labour," Leung said.
China is the world's top meat consumer, but the mainland imposes strict import curbs, particularly on beef, hundreds of tonnes of which is smuggled into the country each year, according to estimates of consumer and industry groups.
Police officers pour gasoline on confiscated smuggled meat before setting it on fire during a massive destruction campaign in Hekou county, China. (Photo: Reuters/China Daily)
In March, U.S. officials said "huge" amounts of beef were getting to China despite bans.
Seizures of smuggled meat have jumped close to threefold this year and generated headlines that have alarmed consumers even in a country wearily familiar with food scandals.
Local media reports said in June authorities had seized 100,000 tonnes of smuggled frozen meat, some of it so-called "zombie meat" up to 40 years old.
Customs officials and police told Reuters the oldest meat found this year had been 4-5 years old, but said chicken feet dating back to 1967 had been seized in 2013.
The greater scrutiny means customs agents often no longer turn a blind eye to refrigerated trucks coming into China, forcing smugglers to take more dangerous routes, bringing meat over one box at a time.
Leung said that while Hong Kong customs seldom check people's bags using X-rays at the border, it is routine to do so on the mainland, making it impossible for Chinese customs to now know smugglers are carrying the raw food product.
"I think it's impossible that they (Chinese customs) don't know. When they cross the border, their bags must go through X-rays, and obviously it will show they are carrying, for example, a lobster. It's impossible to bluff through it. So we believe there is a chance the customs, the mainland Chinese customs, are involved," Leung said.
In Sheung Shui, Reuters reporters saw people repackaging cases of frozen cow tripes labelled with the company Boi Brasil. Frozen short ribs were labelled with giant U.S. food firm Cargill.
A spokesman for Boi Brasil said the Brazilian company had no knowledge of smuggling of its produce into China and had no further comment.
Cargill spokesman Mike Martin said the U.S. agribusiness giant sold beef to well-established, government-regulated distributors in Hong Kong.
He said that once the beef was received by distributors, they had no control over subsequent sales and movement of the beef.
Reuters reporters also saw discarded boxes that were marked as having contained South African lobsters. Leung and other local residents said lobsters, abalone and geoduck clams are other popular items to be sneaked across the border.
Once in China, the meat is transported, often in unrefrigerated trucks, to massive wholesale markets across the country's south, where it is sold on to supermarkets, processing plants and rural markets around China.
- Reuters/jb
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/mobile/asiapacific/china-meat-smuggling/1988274.html
