Argentina achieves market opening for its blueberries in China
After 5 years of talks, the Argentine blueberries finally got access to the market of the Asian giant, a great opportunity along with new challenges.
Without a doubt, good news to start this 2018, in what this means for the country. For this, Portal Frutícola spoke with Federico Bayá, president of the Argentine Cranberry Committee.
Last December 28, the Ministry of Agribusiness gave the news to what Bayá expressed "we celebrate the news, it has been a job of at least 5 years that it has cost us to achieve the result of signing the Protocol with the AQSIQ, it is a great opportunity and challenge that is open to the Argentine blueberry".
And is that clearly a market like China is not so simple, demanding consumers, but also a more complex logistics given the distance that separates both countries.
"We are far from that market and it presents us with a lot of challenges, but we are very happy with this", Affirmed Bayá.
But logistics is not the only challenge, Bayá explains that now a whole commercial development must be started because it is a market that was open.
"You have to start knowing who the players are, the main importers and the market", He said, adding that"we know that it is a market of great consumption, but being so far requires to be very careful and to generate a very good image of the product".
In addition, it should be noted that, in the production window of Argentine blueberries, there is also Peru and Uruguay, countries that already have access to the Chinese market a few years ago.
Bayá also mentioned in this line that, as for Chile, it does not suppose a competition since they are rather complement. "Yes, we have Peru that is an important player, that appeared new and does have production in the Argentine historical window".
"Another big challenge we have is that Argentina has to pay duties (tariffs) of 30% at this moment, which is a disadvantage from the economic point of view "informed.
Although Argentina already officially has access to the Chinese market, the blueberry season in the Andean country has already ended, so exports to China would begin in the next season in August of 2018.
"The news allows us the preparation time for the 2018 season that starts in August".
Regarding varieties, the chairman of the Committee noted that Snow Chaser and Emerald are the ones that concentrate the largest share in production, however, each year new genetic materials are being tested.
On the means of transport Federico Bayá indicated that, although Argentina normally used air supplies, this year they have been forced to turn to maritime transport.
"In this China represents an additional challenge because the transit times are even longer than Europe, but we believe it will be very difficult to send air and also pay the duties. We believe that supply agreements will be made with both air and sea components but the business is going towards the maritime and improving the transport and production techniques to arrive in very good conditions after 35 transit days".
"The strong work of the Committee will be in trying to reduce tariffs and we will seek through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work on the reduction or elimination of these tariffs that may affect our competitiveness in that market".
Bayá finished commenting that "When we received the news we did not know if it was a joke of the Day of the Innocents, but we want to congratulate the Ministry of Agribusiness and Chancellery for achieving such a sign that for us represents a gigantic opportunity but also a very important challenge"He said.
It should be noted that during the first 11 months of 2017 China imported 10.000 tons of fresh blueberries, mainly from Chile and Peru, informed the Ministry of Agribusiness through a statement, in which Minister Luis Miguel Etchevere said that: "These agreements ratify our intention to become the supermarket of the world by opening more markets, thus achieving the boost of our regional economies".
Source: portalfruticola.com
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