The European Union (EU) is to lift its five-year ban on chicken imports from China.

But officials with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) denied a Liberation Daily report that the ban would be lifted immediately.

"I have heard that the EU is to lift its ban on chicken imports from China, but I doubt it will be tomorrow,'' a MOFTEC official said Wednesday.

Another MOFTEC official in charge of trade relations with the EU also said it would not happen so soon.

"It will not be tomorrow,'' she said. "We haven't yet received any official notice or documentation from the EU.''

Jiao Xiaoming, an official with the China Chamber of Commerce for Importers and Exporters of Food, Native Produce and Animal By-products, confirmed the ban would be lifted.

EU officials were not available for comment.

The EU initiated the ban in August 1996 because of low quality and bad sanitary conditions of chickens imported from China.

Before the imposition of the ban, China sold about 50,000 tons of chickens to the EU each year, official statistics show.

Japan is now the largest consumer of Chinese chickens, according to the chamber of commerce.

East China's Shandong Province, Shanghai and northeast China's Liaoning Province are major chicken suppliers.

The Shanghai-based Liberation Daily reported that the EU will lift the ban from today. It said 14 companies had registered with the EU to sell chickens to Europe.

Jin Zuwei, an official with the Shanghai Association of Frozen Food Makers, said China has improved the quality of its chicken products through the gradual establishment of an advanced supervision mechanism on quality and sanitation, a complete epidemic prevention system and an effective monitoring plan on pesticide remainder.

The spread of mad-cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease in Europe has led to EU consumers giving up meat from cloven-hoofed animals and turning to chickens. This has led to the EU seeking new chicken suppliers and to a lifting of the ban, Jin said.

Shi Jianwei, a sales executive with the Shanghai-based Dajiang Food Factory, which has reportedly registered with the EU to sell chickens to Europe, said the decision would boost Chinese exports. He said it would sharpen firms' competitive edge and enable them to balance the Japanese and EU markets.

But he said the price of chickens would not rise much.

(China Daily 05/24/2001)