BEIJING — One in five consumers in China believes that eating pork may put a person at risk for the swine-flu virus, even after health authorities maintained that the meat is safe, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said.
About 64 percent of Chinese consumers stopped eating pork during the early stages of the H1N1 virus outbreak, and 21 percent still consider the meat dangerous, according to a survey commissioned by the Denver- based federation. China, excluding Hong Kong, banned pork imports from most U.S. states following the virus outbreak, which began making headlines April 23.
“The research suggests that the initial Chinese consumer reaction to H1N1 was sharp, and that a significant number of consumers may still associate the virus with pork and hogs,” Joel Haggard, the federation’s senior vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, said Thursday at a conference in Qingdao, China. His comments were reported in a statement on the USMEF website.
U.S. pork exports to China and Hong Kong plunged 73 percent in the first six months of 2009 from the same period last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The region was the second- largest buyer of U.S. pork last year, behind Japan.
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork.
The H1N1 virus is not transmitted through properly handled pork, the World Health Organization and other authorities have said.
