Dumpling poisoning mars China's food exports

China exported 471,000 tons of foodstuffs worth USD 1.02 billion to Japan between January and February and, in the second month alone, exports plummeted by 30 per cent to 186,000 tons, the General Administration of Customs said.

Ten people fell sick in Japan in January after eating dumplings exported by a Chinese company. It had created a national scare within Japan and cast a shadow on the safety of made-in-China food products.

Japanese officials initially said the dumplings were contaminated with pesticides.After the incident, China and Japan sent teams of experts to each other's country for a probe, including a visit to the factory responsible for the exports of dumplings.

Chinese food safety officials subsequently gave a clean chit to the dumplings maker and said it was an "individual deliberate case, and not one of food safety resulting from pesticide residue".

The total exports in the first two months include 144,000 tons of vegetables, a 17.7 per cent drop from the year-on-year basis, and 45,000 tons of aquatic products with a decrease of 12.5 per cent.

The dumplings case brought down exports of food and farm products by Shandong province, Chinas largest food exporter to Japan, by 60 per cent in February as compared to the same month last year.