Plant health inspectors South Korea’s QIA agency are touring cherry production areas in Chile to monitor the implementation of phytosanitary protocols ahead of the new export season.
QIA’s Youngjae Cho visited farms in the Metropolitan, O’Higgins and Maule regions and held meetings with Asoex and officials from SAG on how the programme with be implemented.
Although the agreement paving the way for Chilean cherry exports to South Korea was signed in January of this year, this left little time for exporters to organise programmes during the 2015/16 campaign.
“This is the first season during which we will be able to ship an important volume of cherries to South Korea,” said Asoex’s general manager Miguel Canala-Echeverría.
“It marks the opening of another important market for Chilean cherries in Asia, allowing us to further diversify our exports within that region.”
Asia became the second biggest market for Chilean fruit in 2015/16, with exports rising 10.9 per cent to 482,461 tonnes. China absorbed 59 per cent of this volume, followed by Taiwan (14 per cent), South Korea (9 per cent) and India (7 per cent). Asoex said exports to China have increased by 227 per cent since the start of the decade.
