The government has been told to help restore pre-pandemic pork exports to China.  

The Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill MP, has asked the DEFRA Secretary of State, Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP, what actions she is taking to help UK pork exporters regain access to the key Chinese market.

In a letter published on Thursday (April 27) the Chair of the cross-party parliamentary scrutiny committee explained that some of the UK’s biggest abattoirs surrendered their licences to export to China in 2020 when they had Covid-19 outbreaks in their facilities. 

Despite since fulfilling the requirements of the Chinese customs authority, the General Administration Customs China (GACC), to re-instate the licences, they remain unable to access the Chinese market. 

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The EFRA Committee Chair called on the Secretary of State to lead a rapid cross-government solution to the issue, including by engaging with the GACC, in order to restore the pre-pandemic status quo of UK pork exporters’ access to China.

Sir Robert asked the Secretary of State to set out what steps she would take to do this and requested a response by May 8.

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The letter from Sir Robert to Ms Coffey included other requests for action or information including on the issues of supermarket profits, the Prime Minister’s planned Food Security Summit, and staff resources in her Department following the Committee’s hearing with the Secretary of State on March 28.