China Says Its Seafood Is Safer

BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Agriculture said Tuesday that a recent nationwide crackdown on the use of illegal veterinary drugs had already significantly improved the quality and safety of the country’s seafood production.

Regulators said that over the last year, more than 30,000 inspectors had fanned out across the country, working to close shoddy seafood operations and enforce regulations against the use of banned antibiotics, like chloramphenicol and malachite green, which is thought to cause cancer.

But officials from the agriculture ministry’s fisheries bureau also said that pollution and water quality problems are now the biggest challenges facing the nation’s fish farming or aquaculture industry, something they have rarely acknowledged in public.

“Water quality is the top issue for Chinese aquaculture,” said Ding Xiaoming, the director of aquaculture in the fisheries bureau. “Without good water quality, Chinese aquaculture cannot develop.”

During a 30-minute interview at the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing, Mr. Ding said the country’s rapid urbanization and industrialization was responsible for spoiling the environment and polluting waterways that are used by factory-style fish farms, a situation that experts say has forced some farmers to turn to illegal drugs.

He said the government is rolling out an array of new programs and regulations to educate farmers and combat the quality problems.

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