Chinese authorities have suspended imports from Ecuadorian seafood company FIREXPA, after traces of coronavirus were found on frozen fish packaging, Reuters reported.

The suspension will last one week, according to a notice posted online on Saturday by the General Administration of Customs.

China is suspending imports from companies for a week if frozen food products have tested positive for coronavirus and for a month if a supplier’s products tested positive for a third time or more.

The issue of COVID-19 being found on seafood packaging has been troublesome for both Chilean salmon producers and Ecuadorian shrimp exporters among others.

Chilean salmon producers have been plotting their path back into China after Chinese consumers and retailers their products following the discovery in June of COVID-19 on the chopping board of a seller of imported salmon at Beijing's main wholesale seafood market.

Salmon from Chile was never officially banned from China, but was forced to undergo a series of tests at ports. When supermarkets stopped stocking imported salmon and shoppers shunned it, producers made the decision to take a breather from the market.

Exports of Ecuadorian shrimp to China suffered a massive slump beginning in July, after a series of discoveries of COVID-19 on outer packaging containing their products, leading to fears that a recovery in shipments to China could be years away.

The country's shrimp producers insist any discoveries of COVID-19 must have come from contact with external sources as they pass through a long chain of custody en-route to their final destination.