Customs officers carry out routine inspections on the testing kits that are bound for overseas clients in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, March 25, 2020. (Photo provided to Xinhua)

Chinese customs officers intercepted 172 species of quarantine pests in the first two months this year, and the number of interceptions rose 40.41 percent year-on-year.

General Administration of Customs (GAC) of the State Council said the customs have organized video inspections on overseas fruit exporting enterprises in the past two months, and revoked 245 export qualifications to China. 

Based on the interception at the country's sea ports, 98 notifications of violations were issued to overseas parties, returned or destroyed 56 batches of imported agricultural products from 15 countries and regions, and the qualifications of 33 enterprises exporting to China were revoked.

The customs said it has enhanced inspection of all imported animals, and it has issued 8 banning notifications and 6 warnings, involving 12 countries and regions with elevated risk of African swine fever, highly pathogenic avian influenza, or desert locusts.

GAC said from March 1, the customs will suspend pineapple importation from Taiwan Island after having frequently detected quarantine pests on the tropical fruit coming from there since 2020.

And, GAC and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly issued an announcement on Monday on prohibiting swine and related products from Malaysia in order to prevent the inflow of African swine fever.

The ASF epidemic was reported in Malaysia for the first time after five outbreaks of ASF were detected, in which five wild boars and 303 domestic pigs were confirmed infected in February, according to World Organization for Animal Health.