Chile responded to China’s accusation of an alleged finding of COVID-19 in one of its exported products

The official information of the agency dependent on the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture, the SERNAPESCA, kept calm before the China’s determination to suspend for a week the import of spider crab from Chile. This, it is noted, by the discovery of COVID-19 in their packaging, which could cause some kind of contagion if the proper protocols are not applied.

“The virus was found based on random samples that the Chinese customs performs the entry of all imported products. Samples are made of the coronavirus PCR packaging ”, clarified the Director of SERNAPESCA, Alicia Gallardo, to local media.

The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the containers of a batch of crab would have been detected in a batch of this product which was sent to the Asian country in October. From this, and after their arrival in Chinese territory, the products were analyzed and last Saturday the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) notified the Chilean embassy in Beijing about the detection of a pathogen sample and announced the suspension of commercial activity with the affected Chilean company, Pesquera Isla Del Rey, located in Los Ríos, 800 kilometers south of Santiago.

According to the reports collected, SERNAPESCA notified that the company in question registered two positive cases of COVID-19 in two of its operators plant during November, but none between June and September, precisely the period of elaboration of the supposedly affected items.

The agency also clarified that “The origin of the contagion of the workers was outside the plantBoth complied with the quarantines established by the Ministry of Health and did not generate new infections in the company ”. He also added that the packaging was disinfected before and after loading with quaternary active ammonium, a principle “of recognized effect against the coronavirus”, and that there is no history that the sealed lot was opened until reaching the destination. The information that came from the company referred to as responsible for the pollution, contrasts with determination of suspension, since it is interpreted as that if it is true that there is a presence of COVID-19 in the containers, these could be contaminated in the process of transfer and arrival in China.

In any case, a composition report between SERNAPESCA and the exporting company warns that “the results of this investigation are being sent to Chinese customs with the aim of requesting the lifting of preventive restrictions on the plant established until next Saturday, December 5 ”. On that date, they hope, the business process should return to normal.

Chilean plants, explained Alicia Gallardo, comply with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the prevention and control of coronavirus and “control measures prior to shipment will continue to be reinforced.”

Chile, where the pandemic already leaves more than half a million infected, it is one of the few countries that have not had export restrictions with China, which shows the trust in us. “We will maintain frequent communication thanks to our embassy,” he said.

The WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicated in August that “there is no evidence” that the new coronavirus spreads through the food chain.

The information is complex due to the consequences on exports and, therefore, it did not go unnoticed. From the National Congress, the representative of an eminently fishing region such as Arica and Parinacota in northern Chile, as well as a member of the Parliament’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission, the deputy Luís Rocafull, expressed concern about the situation reported by China. “We are concerned about what may happen due to exports to China, we will request the necessary reports to review the exit protocols from our country, because containing COVID-19 means that the necessary controls or rigor have not existed, and I believe that discarding that, and having full knowledge of it, I hope it can be solved and it is not a trick of China to harm exports to that country. Hopefully we can speak with security and certainty, that the sanitary protocols that are developed for the products that are exported from our country are verified, he declared.

Another member of the Fisheries CommissionBut this time from the upper house Senator Rabindranath Quinteros, representative of the Los Lagos Region, was confident that the restrictive measure imposed on Chilean marine products will not exceed the limits beyond those communicated. “I don’t think there is any kind of discrimination. The same has happened to other products and other countries. What happened is a warning for Chilean companies and certification agencies to be particularly strict in reviewing their processes and dispatching products that go to that market. Chile has a tradition in matters of sanitary protection for agricultural and fishing production, which has allowed us to open more markets ”, he declared.

In the next few days, both the Parliament and SERNAPESCA will receive an expansion of the background regarding the discovery of COVID-19 in the products. After this, responsibilities will be determined so that the necessary safeguards are taken to avoid alleged new episodes of contamination.

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