Mexico is poised to make its first shipments of Persian limes to South Korea before the year end after signing an agreement with the Asian country to authorise imports.
Javier Trujillo Arriaga, director general of Mexico’s plant health authority, Senasica, met with his South Korean counterpart Chulgoo Kangits of the QIA in Seoul to agree a work plan concluding a process begun 12 years ago.
The deal marks the opening of an important new market for Mexican limes, which are grown primarily in the sates of Veracruz, Yucatán and Oaxaca. The country’s annual production is around 2m tonnes, produced over an area of 170,000ha. Between January and September this year, the country exported 280,000 tonnes of Persian limes to the US, Japan and the European Union.
In addition to signing the protocol for limes, the two countries have established an agreement to carry out a pest risk analysis for the export of Mexican table grapes to South Korea, giving producers access to a market of 50m people.
