Shanghai lockdown sends chill down meat trade
BEIJING, May 2 (Reuters) – The protracted lockdown in Shanghai, China’s financial hub, is slowing the nation’s normally booming meat trade, with stringent COVID-19 measures causing logistics logjams across the food industry in a sign of the broadening disruptions to business.
The challenge of moving food in and around Shanghai, whose residents are into a month-long stressful home isolation, highlights similar problems in many other Chinese cities as Beijing persists with its controversial zero-COVID strategy despite growing risks to its economy.
- China is world’s top meat importer
- Largest share of meat imports arrive at Shanghai port
- Product stuck at port with few drivers, trucks to take delivery
- Buyers across China impacted by strained logistics
China is the world’s biggest buyer of meat, bringing in more than 9 million tonnes last year, worth about $32 billion, and the financial hub with a thriving dining scene accounts for the largest chunk of imports.
Traders rely on Shanghai’s ideal location for distributing product around the country, but since an outbreak of COVID-19 cases forced a lockdown in the city at the end of March, moving chilled or frozen products has become a costly headache.