China’s phytosanitary officials have met with representatives from the Chilean fruit industry in order to consolidate agreements between the two countries for the entry of Chilean fruit into China.
Mei Kebao, vice-minister of China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), met with Chile’s Minister of Agriculture (Minagri), the national director of Chile’s national agricultural and livestock association (SAG) and Ronald Bown, the president of Chile’s Fruit Exporters Association (Asoex).
“The objective of these types of meetings is to advance and unite technical criteria to secure access for new Chilean fruits in China, as well as to implement actions in order to facilitate the export process to the Chinese market,” explained Bown.
Aside from the meetings, the Chinese delegation visited fruit farms and packhouses in Requínoa, located in Chile’s VI Region, plus other production and export installations, as well as some pork processing facilities.
According to figures from Asoex, during 2011/12 Chilean fruit exports to Asia rose 10.7 per cent to 380.718 tonnes, surpassing the 344,006 tonnes shipped in 2010/11.
The main market and the fastest-growing destination was China, with an arrivals increase of 22.8 per cent to 168,620 tonnes in 2011/12.
The leading export items to China were table grapes (69,957 tonnes), cherries (39,029 tonnes), apples (21,192 tonnes), kiwifruit (10,537 tonnes), plums (15,416 tonnes) and blueberries (1,778 tonnes), among others.
