China added 15 companies on Monday to a blacklist of Brazilian soy suppliers banned from selling to the world's top buyer of the oilseed, suspending a large chunk of soya imports from the South American country.
Traders said one prominent player left out so far was Singapore's Wilmar Holdings Pte Ltd, which owns many joint venture crushers in the country and imported around half of China's soy imports in 2003.
All eyes are now on the fate of a cargo in the northern port of Qinhuangdao, which traders said was shipped by Wilmar for its joint venture crusher in that region.
Traders fear that if Wilmar's shipment fails inspection, they would join the blacklist and so virtually complete the suspension of soy trade between Brazil and China.
"The quarantine authorities are still checking the cargo. They've stepped up checks by going through every bean," said an official from the crusher in Qinhuangdao. "We're very worried and we're keeping our fingers crossed."
A Qinhuangdao quarantine official said it would take days to conclude whether the cargo was contaminated with harmful chemicals. Wilmar executives were unavailable for comment.
The 15 firms that were on the latest blacklist included Bunge Agribusiness Singapore Pte Ltd, Glencore Importadora E Exportadora S/A and Sumitomo Corp Do Brasil S.A., the bureau said in an announcement.
Brazil is the world's second largest producer of soybeans, after the United States, and China is its biggest customer.
The quarantine bureau has temporarily banned these companies from shipping Brazilian soybeans to China as it found carboxin, a harmful chemical that is usually sprayed on soybean seeds, in cargoes at the southern ports of Xiamen and Shenzhen.
"We're banning these exporters and suppliers from Brazil to protect consumers' health," the bureau said in the statement.
Prior to Monday's announcement, China had already barred seven companies, including multinational grain exporters such as Cargill's and Archer Daniels Midland Co's Brazil units, and Louis Dreyfus.