Assistant Minister of Commerce Tong Daochi led a delegation to Hong Kong to inspect the supply of agricultural and sideline products by interior areas on February 11 to 12. The Delegation held talks with Ko Wing-man, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, attened an agency forum, and made a field inspection of the market supply of Hong Kong.
Tong said that, the central government has always attached great importance to the agricultural and sideline products supply to Hong Kong. Related ministries, and provincial and municipal governments have established a very close and fruitful mechanism for communication with the HK SAR Government for a long time. At the same time, the interior areas have cultivated a long-term and steady operation team and built bases of high-standard production and processing for supply to Hong Kong. Only those plantations and farms that have been registered and recorded by inspection and quarantine authorities could export to Hong Kong, so as to ensure that citizens in Hong Kong can enjoy safety food. In 2014, the Ministry of Commerce, cooperating with the Customs, quality supervision departments and major provinces, agencies and export enterprises, adopted a series of measures to positively assist the HK SAR Government to combat the bird flu, strongly ensuring the steady supply of agricultural and sideline products to Hong Kong. In 2014, the interior areas supplied a total of 3.61 million tons of products and sideline products to Hong Kong valued US$ 8.63 billion, up 2.4% and 12.4% respectively, among that there were 1.6205 million live pigs ( up 3.1% year on year), 18,600 live oxen (down 3%) and 900,000 live chicken (down 61%). Due to the bird flu in parts of interior regions, the supply of live chicken decreased and was suspended for more than seven months. Exports of grain food, vegetables, eggs, milk and drinking water kept steady.
During the visit, Tong also inspected related street markets, inquiring about the supplies and sales of meat, vegetables, fruits and aquatic products in details, especially their sources, quality and price.
With the approaching of the 2015 Spring Festival, the Ministry of Commerce has made plans and put forward five measures, including active organization of sources, initiation of emergency plans, strict prevention of epidemic diseases, strengthening of service and establishment of a 24-hour contact mechanism to make every effort to ensure the stability of supply to Hong Kong with a good quality during the festival.
