A top official in the Commerce ministry said Beijing, which has yet to send quality inspection team to Vietnam to examine pork processing facilities, has cleared the way for such inspections to occur, said Tran Quoc Tuan of the Ministry.

We have been lobbying hard to make China agree on importing pork directly from Vietnam, noted Mr Tuan, and although we don’t have any singed deal yet, we are getting close.

With the world’s largest population, Chinese consumption of meat has been rising. We are now looking for China to send its quality inspectors to see if Vietnamese slaughter houses adhere to the required quality norms.