Severe Crackdown on Meat Smuggling, Greater Support for the Livestock Industry
"In recent years, the price gap between domestic and foreign meat products has led some lawbreakers to engage in large-scale meat smuggling activities, and the smuggling of pork and poultry meat has also been expanding year by year. The spread of meat smuggling not only harms the development of China's livestock industry and endangers the safety of the food on the public's plates, but also undermines our country's tax system and import-export policies." Han Zhenfa, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, called for a severe crackdown on meat smuggling and for the establishment and implementation of a food safety and quality traceability system to safeguard the safety of the food on the public's plates.
Han Zhenfa believes that the current prices of meat, eggs and milk in China are much higher than those in the international market, and the policy and price differences between regions are precisely the fundamental cause of the rampant meat smuggling in China. Since the modernization level of China's livestock industry is still far below that of developed countries, the spread of meat smuggling has dealt a huge blow to the stability of the domestic meat market, worsened the losses of domestic livestock and poultry breeding enterprises, and made China's livestock industry suffer even more. At the same time, he pointed out that smuggled meat is all "three-no meat" or "three-no seafood" that enters the country in simple packaging without going through normal customs declaration, inspection and quarantine. It has many problems and can easily cause malignant incidents such as food poisoning, with unimaginable consequences.
To this end, Han Zhenfa proposed that, first of all, the entry gate must be guarded and the fence against meat smuggling tightened. The customs system should make the fight against meat smuggling a priority in its anti-smuggling work, carefully analyze the new situations, new characteristics and new methods of meat smuggling, reinforce its forces, strengthen measures, and keep smuggled meat out of the country as much as possible. A "market reverse investigation" method can also be adopted, starting from the market and tracing the entry source of smuggled meat that has already entered the circulation chain.
"To ensure food safety and quality, it is urgent to establish and implement a food safety and quality traceability system." Han Zhenfa suggested that the establishment of a traceability system and mechanism for meat food safety and quality be taken as the breakthrough point for establishing China's food safety and quality traceability system, and that this work be carried out first so as to achieve practical results as soon as possible. At the same time, supervision should be strengthened over all links of the market through whole-process oversight, and the circulation gate should be guarded. Relevant departments should strengthen whole-process supervision of the meat market in their jurisdictions, intensify the unified organization and coordination of governments at all levels, clarify the responsibilities of each department, and implement a strict accountability system to ensure that the fight against meat smuggling becomes normalized and full-coverage.
"While cracking down on meat smuggling, support for the development of the domestic livestock industry should also be increased." Han Zhenfa said that while increasing information services and macro guidance to steer the healthy development of China's livestock industry, when meat prices are sluggish due to reasons such as temporary overcapacity, the government can provide support by expanding the scale of reserve meat, purchasing at protective prices, and providing subsidies, so as to protect the interests and enthusiasm of breeding enterprises and farmers.