Liuzhou Food Scandal - The Russians are (not) Coming!

[liuzhou]

A food scandal has gripped Liuzhou (not very much). On Christmas day, a normal day here among the heathens (of which I count myself a member), a blue tent appeared in a busy corner of the city, 5 minutes walk from my home, promoting a handful of new, small stores allegedly offering imported Russian products such as sausages, coffee, honey, chocolate, milk powder and beverages (both hard and soft).

 

 

The nearest such outlet is in the mall beside the tent and sports the catchy slogan “You can taste authentic Russian food without going abroad.” No it doesn’t sound any catchier in Chinese! The goods on display sport Russian language and images of matryoshka dolls, St Basil's Cathedral etc.

 

The local media heard about this tent and, scenting a human interest story, decided to visit. All was going well until some eagle eyed reporters noted that many of the goods had barcodes beginning with 69 which denotes Chinese production; few had 46 or 48 which would be on Russian goods. One product sported the Russian 46 barcode, but also said its origin is Inner Mongolia which is neither Russian or Mongolian but a Chinese province (technically an autonomous region, like Guangxi). Many of these goods are wrapped in ‘Russian’ packaging then overlaid with a label giving a ‘translation’ in Chinese.

 

The staff admitted that the sausages were made in China, due to sausage importation being forbidden under quarantine regulations, as it is in many countries), but also claimed that they were made using Russian ingredients. From the labelling the reporters were able to trace the precise factory in Heilongjiang province making the sausages, where a spokesperson contradicted everything the shop people had said. 

 

 

In any case, we have had ‘foreign food’ shops pop up here before which closed down within weeks. The locals aren’t interested.

 

However, it’s good to see such journalism – investigative reportage is rare here.

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:03 AM by liuzhou (log)