Chinese officials warn of ban on Thai durian if Covid problem not resolved
The Mohan border checkpoint in China has issued Thai durian exporters an ultimatum to resolve their Covid-19 problem in five days, starting Monday, failing which they will be banned.
Sanchai Puranachaikiri, president of the Thai Fresh Fruit Traders and Exporters Association, said in an interview with news outlet Thansettakij that Chinese officials had issued a warning letter to Thai durian exporters.
The letter said that the Mohan border checkpoint officials had found Covid-19 disease in imported durians several times during random testing. It also reported the latest results from durian consignments on Saturday. A total of 82 Thai durian trucks arrived at the Mohan border checkpoint on Saturday. Six of them, or 7.32 per cent tested positive, according to a nucleic acid test for Covid-19.
The checkpoint will speak with related companies to reinforce Covid-19 prevention measures and order related organisations to solve the issue within five business days.
If the issue is not solved after five business days, the Mohan border will ban durians from Thailand.
Sanchai said that the government should issue clear and definitive measures to ban exporters found to be lax. He said these operators should stop operating for two weeks to resolve their problem.
The government should stop exporters from exporting durians for seven days to let some 100 pending durian cargos enter China first.
If the government still lets them export durians, the new cargo will be stuck with the leftover cargo and this will cause more damage.
He added that the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and provincial agricultural offices should enforce Good Agricultural Practice Plus standards strictly.
The Office of Agricultural Affairs in Guangzhou also posted on Facebook on Monday that the Mohan checkpoint has strict Covid-19 prevention measures.
Operators should control and prevent contamination of their products and packages by taking maximum caution.