The
Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said a recent
nationwide crackdown on the use of illegal veterinary
drugs had significantly improved the quality and
safety of the country's seafood production. Regulators
said that in the past year more than 30,000 inspectors
fanned out across the country, working to close
shoddy seafood operations and enforce regulations
against the use of banned antibiotics, like chloramphenicol
and malachite green, which is believed to cause
cancer. But officials from the ministry's fisheries
bureau also said that pollution and water quality
problems had become the biggest challenges facing
China's fish farming or aquaculture, industry,
something they have rarely acknowledged in public."Water
quality is the top issue for Chinese aquaculture,"
Ding Xiaoming, the director of aquaculture in
the ministry's fisheries bureau, said Tuesday.
"Without good water quality, Chinese aquaculture
cannot develop." During a 30-minute interview
at the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing, Ding
blamed China's rapid urbanization and industrialization
for spoiling the environment and polluting waterways
that are used by factory-style fish farms, a situation
that experts say has forced some farmers to turn
to He said the government was rolling out an array
of new programs and regulations to educate farmers
and combat the problems. The government's sweeping
effort is aimed at restoring confidence in Chinese
seafood exports after a year of scandals involving
the safety of food and other products from toys
to toothpaste. The stakes are huge because China
is now the leading producer and exporter of seafood
and an important supplier to the United States
and Japan. And with the seas increasingly depleted
by overfishing, much of the world is turning to
China's huge land-based fish farms to meet growing
demand for everything from shrimp and catfish
to tilapia and eel. But after years of spectacular
growth, the booming Chinese seafood industry is
being threatened by water shortages, contaminated
water supplies and illegal veterinary drug use.
In recent years, Japan and the European Union
have imposed temporary bans on seafood imports
from China because of excessive residues of illegal
drugs. And last June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
moved to block the import of several types of
Chinese seafood products because of similar safety
concerns. Experts in Beijing say Chinese fish
farmers often turn to illegal veterinary drugs
because the drugs can help keep fish alive in
overcrowded fish ponds that are sometimes contaminated
with sewage, agricultural runoff and industrial
chemicals. Some of the banned veterinary drugs
are believed to be highly effective in helping
stressed fish cope with disease. But fish that
are fed such drugs could be poisonous for consumers,
regulators say. Last year, by far the largest
number of seafood imports rejected by the United
States were from China, according to records kept
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The
vast majority of those rejected shipments were
linked to illegal drug residues. The Chinese government
has responded aggressively in recent months by
blacklisting seafood processors or revoking the
licenses of companies that export seafood tainted
with illegal drugs or other banned substances.
But China has also lashed out at the United States
and other countries that have blocked its food
exports, insisting that the vast majority are
safe and meet quality standards and that media
coverage has often been sensational and distorted.
Beijing has pointedly criticized an article that
appeared in December in The New York Times and
the International Herald Tribune. The article
described some of the challenges facing the Chinese
seafood industry, noting that many producers had
often used illegal veterinary drugs to cope with
fishing or farming in polluted waters. "It
is a question of common sense. Do you believe
that fish can live in toxic water?" Agriculture
Vice Minister Gao Hongbin said at a news conference
last week, responding to a question. "Personally,
I believe that this report is sensational and
misleading." The state-controlled news media
in China were also critical of the article, quoting
farmers and aquaculture officials as saying the
report had been "totally groundless."
However, in the interview Tuesday, Ding, a high-ranking
official at the fisheries bureau, said the article
had been accurate. But he called the headline
that appeared in the Times - "In China, Farming
Fish in Toxic Waters" - sensational and erroneous.
(The article appeared under a different headline
in the International Herald Tribune.) "I
think your article was correct," he said
Tuesday, but "it's not scientific to say
the water is toxic."
The interview was cut short, however, after Ding
began acknowledging some of the industry's problems
and seemed to contradict other agricultural officials,
who criticized the article.
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