A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) sternly clarified today (March 5) that the department has been urging Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse (SSSH) to resume services as soon as possible and renders full assistance in arranging Mainland slaughterers to come to Hong Kong in order to relieve manpower pressure on the slaughterhouse.
As for a newspaper citing a reader who claimed that the department had obstructed SSSH from resuming services, it was entirely a distortion of the facts. The FEHD expressed deep regret that someone had deliberately disseminated false information.
As a matter of fact, SSSH and the live pig industry indicated at a meeting on March 3 that due to the epidemic, there had been a severe shortage of manpower such that the supply chain could not operate.
The FEHD expressed deepest gratitude to the Mainland for deploying professional and skilled personnel to come to Hong Kong to assist SSSH. The department will render all practicable assistance to expedite the resumption of services of the slaughterhouse. In response to the Government’s appeal, relevant trades have already increased the supply of chilled and frozen meat products. Over the past week, the total supply of chilled meat from the Mainland was maintained at a level higher than a normal day, some 1.7 to 1.9 times Hong Kong's daily average supply from the Mainland.
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