Great potential seen as California plums gain access to China
Great potential seen as California plums gain access to China
After more than a decade of negotiations, the California tree fruit industry has gained access to markets in mainland China for plums from five California counties.
According to Blair Richardson, president of the California Tree Fruit Agreement in Reedley, CA, the Chinese market is "a huge opportunity" for California growers and could potentially surpass Canada to become the largest export market for California plums.
We do believe that this first year a lot of people will be testing the waters, so to speak, and trying to figure out how to best get the fruit to that market. But notwithstanding that, we think there is a potential of shipping half-a-million boxes of plums into China this year, which would put it into the category of one of our biggest markets in the first year, said Mr. Richardson.
Currently, California growers ship approximately 2 million boxes of plums annually to Canada and about 1.5 million boxes combined to Taiwan and Hong Kong out of a total export volume of about 4.5 million boxes.
The California plum industry initially requested to have formal access into China in 1994, and since then we have gone through a number of steps, including sponsoring different delegations from China, researchers and government officials to come over and review our industry and review the research on California plums. The industry has worked with those delegations to allay any concerns that they may have had regarding any insects, diseases or anything else that could have been a potential problem for their growers in China, Mr. Richardson said.
There have been a lot of negotiations between U.S. federal government officials and Chinese officials over the last decade, he continued. We went back and forth, and then for a time it kind of hit a bit of a stalemate. The California plum access issue got tied up with some requests for access of Chinese products into the United States and really wasn't moving, he said.
At that point, we worked with some other industry organizations, including the California Grape & Tree Fruit League which pursued the issue with various contacts in the state and federal government. A very strong effort went forward, and we were successful in finally getting the document signed on December 16.
In early December, the CTFA had listed gaining access for plums to the Chinese market as one of its key goals for the organizations 2006 strategic plan. The effort had been progressing to the point that its achievement during 2006 appeared realistic.
But we certainly werent expecting anything to be imminent, Mr. Richardson said. We didnt realize it was going to be accomplished by the end of 2005 before the final draft of the strategic plan was even completed. It was kind of nice to be able to achieve something that quickly, he said, although the groundwork had been ongoing for over a decade.
The protocol required for exporting the plums to China is I think a very good protocol, Mr. Richardson said. It is certainly a much more reasonable protocol than the agreement we have with Mexico.
Growers who are contemplating participating will be required to register with the California Tree Fruit Agreement and will need to work with county officials on a Mediterranean fruit fly trapping program. They will also need to take specific precautions with regard to codling moth and certain other pests of concern. Before the first plums are shipped this year, we will have a group of Chinese officials come over to view the production region and take a look at some of the packinghouses that are packing plums early in the season and look at some of the plum fields and observe compliance with the protocol. Once the industry receives the go-ahead from China, we will be able to start shipping, he said.
The final protocol allows access to China for plums from five California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Kings and Madera.
This is one of the most significant successes for this industry in many years, Mr. Richardson, said. We will now launch new promotional programs in this important market to which we expect to ship up to 500,000 packages in the first year.
With a growing urban population of over three-quarters of a billion people and a rapidly expanding economy, Chinese consumers are demanding more imported agricultural goods. The total value of Chinese agricultural imports was $25.9 billion in 2004, which was a 50 percent increase over the prior year, stated a CTFA press release.
In 2004, California exported $456 million worth of farm products to China, ranking it as the states fifth-largest overseas market. California would like to export more farm products to China, which has a population of 1.3 billion people and a rapidly growing middle class, the release stated.
According to Blair Richardson, president of the California Tree Fruit Agreement in Reedley, CA, the Chinese market is "a huge opportunity" for California growers and could potentially surpass Canada to become the largest export market for California plums.
We do believe that this first year a lot of people will be testing the waters, so to speak, and trying to figure out how to best get the fruit to that market. But notwithstanding that, we think there is a potential of shipping half-a-million boxes of plums into China this year, which would put it into the category of one of our biggest markets in the first year, said Mr. Richardson.
Currently, California growers ship approximately 2 million boxes of plums annually to Canada and about 1.5 million boxes combined to Taiwan and Hong Kong out of a total export volume of about 4.5 million boxes.
The California plum industry initially requested to have formal access into China in 1994, and since then we have gone through a number of steps, including sponsoring different delegations from China, researchers and government officials to come over and review our industry and review the research on California plums. The industry has worked with those delegations to allay any concerns that they may have had regarding any insects, diseases or anything else that could have been a potential problem for their growers in China, Mr. Richardson said.
There have been a lot of negotiations between U.S. federal government officials and Chinese officials over the last decade, he continued. We went back and forth, and then for a time it kind of hit a bit of a stalemate. The California plum access issue got tied up with some requests for access of Chinese products into the United States and really wasn't moving, he said.
At that point, we worked with some other industry organizations, including the California Grape & Tree Fruit League which pursued the issue with various contacts in the state and federal government. A very strong effort went forward, and we were successful in finally getting the document signed on December 16.
In early December, the CTFA had listed gaining access for plums to the Chinese market as one of its key goals for the organizations 2006 strategic plan. The effort had been progressing to the point that its achievement during 2006 appeared realistic.
But we certainly werent expecting anything to be imminent, Mr. Richardson said. We didnt realize it was going to be accomplished by the end of 2005 before the final draft of the strategic plan was even completed. It was kind of nice to be able to achieve something that quickly, he said, although the groundwork had been ongoing for over a decade.
The protocol required for exporting the plums to China is I think a very good protocol, Mr. Richardson said. It is certainly a much more reasonable protocol than the agreement we have with Mexico.
Growers who are contemplating participating will be required to register with the California Tree Fruit Agreement and will need to work with county officials on a Mediterranean fruit fly trapping program. They will also need to take specific precautions with regard to codling moth and certain other pests of concern. Before the first plums are shipped this year, we will have a group of Chinese officials come over to view the production region and take a look at some of the packinghouses that are packing plums early in the season and look at some of the plum fields and observe compliance with the protocol. Once the industry receives the go-ahead from China, we will be able to start shipping, he said.
The final protocol allows access to China for plums from five California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Kings and Madera.
This is one of the most significant successes for this industry in many years, Mr. Richardson, said. We will now launch new promotional programs in this important market to which we expect to ship up to 500,000 packages in the first year.
With a growing urban population of over three-quarters of a billion people and a rapidly expanding economy, Chinese consumers are demanding more imported agricultural goods. The total value of Chinese agricultural imports was $25.9 billion in 2004, which was a 50 percent increase over the prior year, stated a CTFA press release.
In 2004, California exported $456 million worth of farm products to China, ranking it as the states fifth-largest overseas market. California would like to export more farm products to China, which has a population of 1.3 billion people and a rapidly growing middle class, the release stated.
