Philippines looks for alternative markets for fruit exports
May 14, 2012 at 10:55
The government is looking for alternative markets for Philippine fruit exports in light of reports that China has been conducting more stringent inspection on these items, a farm official said on Friday last week.
Officials of both governments, however, stressed such inspection was not connected to the territorial spat involving Scarborough Shoal.
“We were instructed by Secretary [Proceso J.] Alcala to closely monitor the situation and to start looking for other markets to divert our fruit exports to China,” Leandro H. Gazmin, director of the Agriculture department’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service, said in a phone interview.
He said some local fruit exporters have reported problems bringing their products into China.
He declined to elaborate, even as he cited bananas and pineapples as some of the affected items.
“Now, we’re looking at…Japan, the Middle East, US and other Asian countries to see where we can mobilize [sic] other market access…,” Mr. Gazmin said.
Data from the department showed that the Philippines exports several fruits to China, such as coconuts, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, grapes, watermelons and papayas, among others.
In 2011, the top fruit exports to China in terms of value were bananas, with sales totaling some $75.3 million and pineapples, $5.9 million.
Aside from fruits, the Philippines also exports poultry and fishery products to China, as well as processed food products.
State-run China Daily last May 12 reported that some retailers in Beijing and Shanghai have stopped selling fruits from the Philippines.
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“China is a big agricultural export market for the country. They would be a big loss,” Mr. Gazmin said.
“We were already warned that this would happen. We were hoping it wouldn’t come to this point, but it seems like it has,” he added, citing the economic impact of current, unresolved bilateral tensions in the South China Sea.
“Agricultural products cannot wait. A few days’ delay would mean great losses for our local exporters.”
Still, officials of both governments said the two issues should not be linked.
“It remains to be a phytosanitary issue,” Presidential Deputy Spokesperson Abigail F. Valte said on Sunday in an interview over state-run radio station DZRB.
She added that the stricter inspection carried out by China is a “regulatory issue” that is being discussed by officials of both countries.
A spokesperson of China’s embassy in Manila echoed the same view.
“The [tightened fruit inspection] measures are day-to-day practices that have nothing to do with the Huangyan Island (another name for Scarborough Shoal) incident,” embassy spokesperson Hua Zhang said in a text message on Thursday last week.
“To safeguard agricultural and forestry production and ecological security of China…[the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine] has recently instructed China’s entry-exit inspection and quarantine agencies to tighten tests on fruits imported from tropical countries to prevent hazardous organisms from entering into China,” he stressed.
Mr. Zhang said that “since the beginning of this year, Chinese entry-exit inspection and quarantine agencies have identified hazardous pests… a number of times from bananas, pineapples and other fruits imported from the Philippines.”
“These pests include Dysmicoccus neobrevipes beardsley and Aonidiella comperei Mckenzie, in addition to ants, aphids, spiders and other living destructive insects,” he said, adding that pest infestation rises during summer.
He explained that “China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has informed the competent Philippine departments… many times and urged the Philippine side to take improvement measures.”
Ms. Valte said “the DA [Department of Agriculture], the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) as well as the Bureau of Plant Industry are coordinating with their counterparts [in China] to determine what we can do… that is already being addressed by the government.”
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By B. F. V. Roc and A. E. Barrameda
Source: BusinessWorld, May 14, 2012
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