The Ministry of Agro-Industry, the Foreign Ministry, and representatives of various productive sectors are in meetings to discuss strategies focused on reaching new international markets and optimising processes with countries that currently import Argentine agricultural foods.
The last meeting was held with the fruit chain to analyse the possibility of developing an action plan to promote trade, giving priority to key markets that the country could enter in the short term, evaluating sanitary barriers, and updating the industry about the status of international negotiations. "Every year Argentina exports 1,088 million dollars of fruits to the world."
"So far in 2016, exports have increased by 4% over the same period of 2015. There still are markets to be opened and our commitment is to develop all possible strategies to continue growing," said the Secretary of Agroindustrial Markets, Marisa Bircher. Currently, Argentina can export its fruit products to more than 70 markets and consumers can find Argentine products on every continent. Some of the most important fruit exports include pears (64 markets), apples (57 markets), grapes (30 markets), lemons (61 markets), and tangerines (39 markets).
The main destinations are the European Union, which accounts for 30% of sales; Brazil, with 22% of the market; United States, with 17%, and Russia, which takes 15% of Argentine fruits. The producers that participated in the meeting stressed the importance of deepening trade with Brazil and Mexico, and the need to streamline the negotiations between the EU and Mercosur.
The meeting was also attended by the Undersecretary of Agriculture, Luis Urriza; the national director of Agricultural food International Relations, Omar Odarda, and the Vice President of the Health and Food Quality Service (SENASA), Guillermo Rossi. There were also officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Citrus Federation (Federcitrus), Argentina's Chamber of Integrated Fruit Growers (CAFI), the Association of Producers of Fruit Fresh (ASPEF), the Argentinean Blueberry Committee ( ABC), Argentina's Chamber of Integrated Producers of Cherries (Capci), the Chamber of Producers of Kiwi, and the Chamber of Industrial Fruit Production of Mendoza (CAFIM).
Source: infocampo.com.ar