RIYADH, 30 January — Saudi Arabia has imposed a temporary ban on the import of rice from the United States, and a variety of food products from China due to fears of possible contamination, the Commerce Ministry said yesterday.
The ministry said in a statement it had asked its “quality control laboratories several days ago not to release any new shipment of US rice”, pending test results after reports that the rice was contaminated with lead.
The laboratories were also ordered not to release any shipment of rabbit, chicken, fish, shrimps, honey and a variety of animal food products from China due to fears of them containing the powerful antibiotic chloramphenicol.
The ministry statement said the list could be further expanded if contamination of the products were proved by laboratory tests currently under way. Tests in Japan proved have proved that the products contained toxic ingredients.
Samples of the rice and the Chinese products were sent for analysis to the Kingdom’s leading King Faisal Specialist Hospital.
American rice accounts for half of the imported rice in the Kingdom, followed by Indian, Pakistani and Egyptian rice.
Restaurants serving shrimp dishes have been complaining of supply shortages in the local market. They say that the annual per capita shrimp consumption in the Kingdom has gone up to 7.8 kg.
Shrimps represent 15 percent of the seafood consumed in the Kingdom. Although production shot up from 500 tons in 1993 to 2,900 tons last year, investment in the sector is minimal, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Water.
Saudi Arabia has four major fisheries — three on the Red Sea — with a combined production of 53,000 tons.
