Chinese couple was fined $8.8 million for selling smuggled beef

Almaty. September 20. Silkroadnews - Chinese couple was fined $8.8 million for selling smuggled beef, South China Morning Post reported.
“A couple from eastern China have been fined 58 million yuan (US$8.8 million) for selling uncertified frozen beef smuggled from Brazil. The husband and wife were also sentenced to prison terms of five years and four years respectively,” the agency wrote.
The police, reportedly, found some smuggled beef during a routine market check in Wenling in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. It was found out that the beef in points of retail sale in Wenling was supplied by the married couple from neighboring the next province Jiangxi. Later, the pair confessed that in the second half of 2014 they started buying smuggled beef in Guangdong Province, as well as in Zhengzhou, Henan, and Wuhan, Hubei, and then sold it in Wenling, though the issue was still unclear about the route the meat got to the territory of China.
According to the agency, the couple sold smuggled meat for nearly 29 million yuan during the period from July 2015 to March 2016, when they were detained. The couple, along with four meat retailers from Wenling, was accused of selling uncertified food.
China’s food safety laws say anyone who sells non-certified food can be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of one to five years, as well as a fine up to twice the revenue earned.
It is reported that the consumption of beef in China has increased significantly over the past few years, as more consumers value it for higher quality and lower fat content compared to pork, which is the country’s staple.
“China last year became the world’s second-largest beef importing country, with about 29 per cent of the meat coming from Brazil, according to the Meat Import Council of America. Its imports are forecast to grow 17 per cent this year to 950,000 tonnes, the council said,” the publication reads.