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A person wearing a hazmat suit stands next to burning egg cartons and other items in a hole in the ground at a poultry farm after Brazil confirmed its first outbreak of bird flu on Friday, triggering protocols for a country-wide trade ban from top buyer China and state-wide restrictions for other major consumers, in Montenegro, Brazil. (Reuters)
China has issued a ban on all imports of poultry and related products from Brazil over an avian influenza outbreak, two weeks after suspending import applications from the country’s poultry farms.
All direct and indirect Brazilian poultry imports are banned, and will be returned or destroyed if brought or mailed into the country, China’s General Administration of Customs said in a website notice dated May 29.
It also said all animal and plant waste from inbound ships from Brazil must be treated under customs’ supervision and not discarded without authorisation.
Brazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter and China’s biggest chicken meat supplier, confirmed a bird flu outbreak on a commercial poultry farm in the city of Montenegro in its southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul on May 16, triggering a slew of international trade bans.
The Brazilian government had asked China to restrict its embargo to poultry products just from the city where the outbreak occurred, but Beijing’s announcement showed it had shrugged off the call for a limited ban.
China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among the main destinations for Brazil’s chicken exports. The other three countries imposed only statewide bans.
The European Union and South Korea have also banned Brazilian chicken. Brazil exported some $10 billion of chicken meat in 2024, accounting for about 35% of global trade, making a nationwide ban painful not just for Brazilian farmers but also major importers.
Brazilian farmers have been counting on warming relations between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping to ease the poultry trade ban.
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