During the past week representatives of the national public and private sector met with representatives of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (AQSIQ), with the aim of advancing the entry process of Chilean pears into China, as well as to plan actions to inform the Chilean consumer about the entry of the first Chinese pears into Chile, among other matters.
Lou Junwen, Director of the AQSIQ Biosecurity Division; Yu Xiaodong, professional at AQSIQ Biosecurity Division; Wang Jun, Director of Shenzhen CIQ; and Feng Chunguang, Manager of CPQS (China Association for Consumer Products Quality and Safety Promotion), were in charge of receiving the Chilean delegation that was composed of Rodrigo Astete, Head of the SAG's Agricultural and Forestry Protection Division; Carlos Parra, Chilean Agricultural Aggregate in China and Miguel Canala-EcheverrÃa, General Manager of Asoex.
In this regard, Miguel Canala-Echeverria indicated that "China is an important market for fresh Chilean fruit, and Chile is China's main supplier of it during the winter. Therefore, we seek to expand our presence in this market, in order to offer new products with the same quality, safety and flavor as the ones we already export. In this context, we met with representatives of AQSIQ, an organization with which we have worked long and close together, to advance the entry of the Chilean pears, a product that could be added to the nectarines, whose entry was recently approved.
For his part, Rodrigo Astete commented on the Pest Risk Analysis (ARP) progress for the entry of national pears into the Asian nation: "Once the process of entry of Chilean nectarines to China was completed, which permitted exports of about 300 thousand boxes to be concerted this season, we sent all technical, productive and phytosanitary antecedents to the authorities of AQSIQ to advance the opening process for our pears. Now the aim is to convene with the Chinese authorities on risk management measures and their respective technical protocols," he said.
"The good relationships that we have generated with AQSIQ during these long years of working jointly, as well as the efforts of the private sector to meet the requirements and deliver quality fruit are allowing us to advance in a more expeditious way, as reaching this stage, on average, used to take about 2 years," added Astete.
Other topics discussed at the meeting were the export mechanisms under ship and sea-air warehousing, as well as the sending of more than one species of fresh fruit in the same container, which could be implemented as a pilot test next season to be analyzed by AQSIQ. The Chinese health authorities also submitted a protocol proposal with the aim of regularizing the entry of 14 frozen products from Chile, and asked to move forward in the ARP process to authorize the entry of Chinese dates into our market.
Finally, Miguel Canala-EcheverrÃa announced that in order to promote reciprocity and mutual support, ASOEX, together with the CPQS, are coordinating promotional activities in some supermarkets in Santiago, with the aim of informing consumers of the arrival of the first Chinese pears in Chile; actions that would take place the first week of December of 2017 and that were well received by the Chinese representatives.
Source: asoex.cl