It follows reports over the weekend that the city of Jenin in China's east had found Kovar, 19, in beef and tripe and on their packaging from New Zealand, Brazil and Bolivia.

Two other provincial capitals said they also detected the disease on port packaging from Argentina.

Fearing import bans, Jacinda Arden is seeking further clarification from Beijing on the matter.

We were aware off some products, having tested positive from Argentina that were in the same coal store, but not our products.

I do want to get to this bottom of this.

This is incredibly important to New Zealand.

We are confident, of course, that our products do not are not exported with signs of covert on them, given our status is essentially been covered free.

China has ramped up testing on its frozen foods after repeatedly detecting the virus on imported products.

New Zealand, meanwhile, has won worldwide praise for its handling off the pandemic.