Japan partially lifts Chinese poultry ban

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced a partial lifting of the country's ban on cooked poultry imports from China. The cooked poultry imports will be processed at 35 plants designated by the Chinese government to produce for export to Japan. The plants were all approved by the Japanese ministry, which will maintain the ban on raw poultry from China. Japan banned Chinese poultry imports on January 27 in the wake of an outbreak of avian flu on the mainland. Japan imported around 150,000 tons of processed poultry products from China in 2002.