More than 210 tons of frozen chicken products from bird flu-hit areas of the United States were destroyed in Guangzhou's Panyu District on Wednesday. The products were mainly chickens' feet, legs and wings.

According to an official from the Anti-smuggling Office of the district government, they had been produced in areas of the US that had been affected by bird flu between 2002 and early this year.

The products, enough to fill 26 trucks, were seized as they were being smuggled into the mainland via Guangdong and Hong Kong waters this year, an anonymous official told China Daily on Thursday.

Chicken is a popular food in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, particularly during the  Spring Festival and other major festivals.

The government banned the import of chicken products from bird flu-hit countries at the beginning of the year to prevent it from reentering the mainland.

According to Huang Shanqun, vice director of Gongbei Custom's Anti-smuggling Bureau, more than 300 tons of smuggled chicken products are seized every day in Zhuhai City.

Huang said the price of frozen chicken feet is around 4,000 yuan (US$483) per ton in Hong Kong. However, if these frozen chicken feet are smuggled onto the mainland they can be sold for as much as 9,000 yuan (US$1,087) per ton.

Profits are as much as five times higher than that from smuggling oil, encouraging many oil smugglers to switch to frozen chicken products.  

The ban imposed because of bird flu resulted in a 200,000 ton-gap between supply and demand in China, providing a huge opportunity to smugglers.

Many suppliers in Hong Kong, which acts as a transfer station for frozen imports to China, have been left overstocked after the ban, guaranteeing smugglers a good supply source.

It is hard to know the quantity of frozen chicken products smuggled to the mainland, but customs cases and the amount of products seized from May to June were up to six times that in the first four months of the year.

(China Daily, China.org.cn December 3, 2004)