Things are not what they used to be. The high labor costs of caring for delicate stonefruit, such as peaches, nectarines, plums and other varieties, have diminished the importance that this production had in the province of Sevilla, which currently only has some 4,500 hectares devoted to these crops, i.e. half of the planted area it had a few years ago. Many farmers have uprooted their stonefruit trees and replaced them for more profitable crops, such as potato and citrus.
However, there still are some producers devoted to this crop and they have a new opportunity with China, as the Asian country signed an agreement with the Spanish Government a few days ago and Spain will become the first country to export its stonefruit production to China. According to sources from Fepex, sales will begin to materialize starting next June.
Opening new markets and creating business opportunities is good news, however, a priori, it will be complicated for local producers which regard Europe as their fundamental market, said Luis Marin, the manager of Asociafruit.
Although there still are around thirty operators for this type of fruit, he said, the fact is that four or five large groups are in charge of 80 percent of the production and marketing and, ultimately, it is this group that will have options to explore the Chinese market.
In fact, two companies based in Andalusia, one of which is Seville's SAT Royal, have taken the formal step of enrolling in the registry to maintain trade relations with China, a necessary step to export to that country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Board, which is responsible for sending the list of companies that meet the requirements to export and are interested in doing so to the Ministry.
A group of Chinese inspectors are expected to visit various production centers and farms in the first week of June to check if they comply with all the conditions for export so they can give them the green light to do it.
Diego Pozancos, from the SAT Royal company, just came back from a trade mission to China, where he had the opportunity to know this market, its consumer habits, and exchange experiences with other agents. Importers from other Asian countries, with whom he has business relations, have expressed their interest in introducing the apricot in China; a fruit that doesn't lasts long, but that could be studied at the right price.
"The first year will be exploratory. There won't be much volume, but we'll be able to test what kind of products are most interesting to consumers, what prices they are willing to pay, and what quality characteristics they demand," he said.
However, he said, this new market won't serve to fill the gap left by the Russian veto on European fruit and vegetable products that started in August 2014.
The average Chinese citizen won't be able to afford these products, but there is "an upper middle class living in an urban environment that has the purchasing power to buy them," he stated. Pozancos estimates this segment's potential in about one hundred million people.
He also stated that, even though he didn't think they would export high volumes and transport and logistics costs were important, it was a market that they could slowly grow in. "No country has been developed in a year or two," he added.
Plum, for example, has a longer shelf life so it could withstand the demanding required logistics conditions, i.e. fourteen days cold treatment, in air transport. SAT Royal's intention is send a batch of stonefruit to China in the months of July or August.
Source: elcorreoweb.es