China's mainland vowed a continued effort to impose a strict quarantine control over food supply to Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Friday.

Li Changjiang, director of the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said during his visit to Macao Friday that all of the mainland's 310 poultry suppliers to Macao were intact during the threat of bird flu outbreak earlier this year.

"The central government has always attached a great importance to the quality and safety of food supply to Macao," said Li, who came to sign two agreements on product origin requirements and quarantine cooperation with the Macao SAR government under the framework of the Mainland/Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA).

He said that the two agreements would not only allow a smooth flow of Macao's CEPA products to enter the mainland market, but also specify the quarantine requirements for the mainland's product supply to Macao.

The SAR, which barely has its own poultry farms and agriculture, depends on a considerable import of fresh products such as poultry and vegetable from the mainland every day.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2004)