The opening of the Chinese market to Spanish stone fruit has producers searching for the best transport routes to ensure their products comply with the strict requirements to export to China and that they arrive with a quality that can differentiate the Spanish brand over other origins.
"This is positive news for the sector. It is an output for our fruit and a market that highly values quality. However, China is not a a priority market for many exporting companies," said Manel Simon, CEO of Afrucat. "In the short term, China won't be a solution to the loss of the Russian market, as it took us many years to open trade route there," he said.
According to Simon, "the ideal way to enter Chinese markets, which is a new market for all of us, would have been through a corporation that grouped together all the Spanish fruit."
"We must take good care and meet all protocols from now on, more so at the beginning of the campaign, as the Chinese market is very strict in any region," he stated. "We are working to provide alternative means of transport to maritime shipments, which are shorter and door to door to avoid the difficulties of distributing fruit after reaching major ports. We have held meetings with rail and road transport lines, but there have been important management complications so far."
According to Jesus Gomez, the manager of the Spanish Company Frutas Esther, passing through Russian territory is one of the major complications for railway transport. "Rail transport would probably be the most interesting transportation method for us, but its currently very difficult to ship a product that Russia has banned through that country. These are political impediments and their solution does not depend on us, but on European authorities," he said.
"It's clear that maritime shipments would be too risky if we are trying to differentiate our product for its taste because it would take more than 40 days for the fruit to be put on sale to the consumer. We advise exporters to act with great caution. This new opportunity can bring happiness or it can bring the opposite and much of that depends on us," said Jesus Gomez.
The president of Afruex, Miguel Angel Gomez, said that, even though there were still some details to solve, they could confirm that Chinese consumers would be able to buy Spanish stone fruit in their country this summer. "We expect to ship some 10 to 12 containers of fruit, equivalent to about 180,000 kilos. We can grow, but we must do things rationally," he concluded.