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BEIJING: The protracted lockdown in Shanghai, China’s financial hub, is slowing the nation’s usually booming meat trade, with stringent COVID-19 measures causing logistics logjams across the food industry in a sign of the broadening disruptions to business.

The challenge of moving food in and around Shanghai, whose residents are into month-long stressful home isolation, highlights similar problems in many other Chinese cities as Beijing persists with its controversial zero-COVID strategy despite growing risks to its economy.

China is the world’s biggest buyer of meat, bringing in more than 9 million tons last year, worth about $32 billion, and the financial hub with a thriving dining scene accounts for the largest chunk of imports.

Other food products, including dairy and edible oils, have also been stuck in the Shanghai port, while beef imports into the city have dropped 23 percent year-on-year in March. When compared with other cities under COVID-19 restrictions, the data suggests food exporters like Brazil, the United States and Australia are facing pressure on their trade with the world’s second-biggest economy.

In March, Australian beef exports to China fell 10 percent year-on-year when the lockdown had just started, while overall pork imports fell 70 percent.

Pork imports could plunge as much as 30 percent this year because of the logistics woes, compared with a previous estimate of 10 percent, said Pan Chenjun, a senior analyst at Rabobank.

Traders rely on Shanghai’s ideal location for distributing products around the country, but since an outbreak of the coronavirus forced a lockdown in the city at the end of March, moving chilled or frozen products has become a costly headache.

Frequent COVID-19 tests, lengthy quarantines and long clearance times to enter Shanghai have kept many drivers away, while fewer refrigerated trucks are available because of special licensing requirements.

Outspoken market analyst’s Chinese social media accounts suspended

The Chinese social media accounts of an outspoken Hong Kong-based market strategist were suspended after a series of negative commentaries and a slump in mainland equities to two-year lows on COVID-19 lockdowns and global political tensions.

All content on the WeChat account of Hong Hao, who is head of research at Bocom International Holdings, has been blocked since late Saturday. His account has also been suspended, WeChat said, citing unspecified violations of its rules.

Since Saturday, Hong’s account on China’s Twitter-like microblog Weibo has also vanished.

Representatives of WeChat and Weibo did not respond immediately to emailed requests for comment on Sunday.

Negative comments by market analysts and commentators in China are often censored. They have come under increased scrutiny as the country’s economy and financial markets encounter stiff headwinds in a year in which Xi Jinping is widely expected to secure a third term as president.

Hong did not respond to a Reuter’s text message seeking comment on the suspensions, and a Bocom International representative did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment.

Toyota reopens plant in China

Toyota Motor Corp. reopened a joint-venture plant in Changchun, which was suspended since mid-March, as the Chinese city’s lockdown measures were eased, Kyodo News said on Sunday.

The report said that the Japanese automaker plans to resume regular operations on Wednesday, citing an unnamed source.

China auto sales had plunged 11.7 percent in March from a year earlier after the country imposed strict lockdowns to contain the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant.

(With inputs from Reuters)