TYSON Foods Inc., the biggest U.S. meat processor, is seeking to convince China to lift a ban on U.S. chicken shipments from an Arkansas plant where workers tested positive for COVID-19, the firm’s president Dean Banks said Monday

China has emerged as the largest export market for American poultry, overtaking Mexico this spring, after China in November ended a nearly five-year embargo on imports from the United States.

Since June, China’s customs authority has blocked chicken from Tyson’s plant in Springdale, Arkansas, as part of an all-out effort to control the spread of COVID-19 in China. Globally, China has suspended imports from more than 20 overseas plants processing pork, beef and poultry.

“We’ve been interacting with them and making sure that they have all the information they need about the precautionary measures, the protective measures that plant has taken,” Banks said.

“We’d love to continue to export product from that facility, but that’s in the hands of the Chinese Government.”

Tyson on Monday also named Banks as its new chief executive and reported quarterly earnings that were hurt by the pandemic.

More than 16,000 U.S. meatpacking workers have been infected with COVID-19 at dozens of plants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(SD-Agencies)