Last Friday the 7th of August in the afternoon, the vessel Maersk Labrea arrived from Buenos Aires - Argentina into the port of Hong Kong. The vessel left Argentina in the end of June for the journey towards the east. On that vessel were the first lemons from Argentina destined for the People’s Republic of China. An historic moment!
Argentina is among the biggest exporters of lemons worldwide. The majority of the production is going to the industry, but still almost 20% is being exported as fresh fruit. China is an important market for the future with its high consumption possibilities.
Shipment before loading in Argentina
Aartsen Asia worked together with its partner Citromax on this first shipment into the People’s Republic of China. Customs clearance happened on Saturday the 8th of August and very late in the evening the container arrived in China. The protocol makes it mandatory that the lemons are subjected to cold treatment (between 2 and 3 degrees) in transit to prevent fruit flies. On arrival the lemons showed a good condition after the journey, which is promising for the coming years and the development of the lemons export from Argentina to China. The lemons were selected and prepared with great care by Citromax to make sure the product arrived well.
Left: Opening container in China
Right: Henry Yang from partner Foshan Zhxing fruits Co and Allen Wang from Aartsen Asia
Sales will be planned in the coming days. The plan is to distribute the lemons into different channels in China to test the waters and to make sure we learn from the demand in various segments of the market. Think of chain stores for juice, 2nd tier cities like Qingdao, Jiaxing, or Wuhan, retailers, online shops as well as factories for juicing.
We hope this will be the start of a positive new era in the lemons business. As Aartsen we distribute at the moment citrus from multiple countries into China as well as into many countries in South East Asia. The main countries of origin are Australia, South Africa, Chile and Argentina. The fact that lemons from Argentina can be destined for China adds a positive value to this basket of citrus!
For more information:
Menno van Breemen
Aartsen Asia Ltd.
T: +852 37 05 55 07
M: +852 93 19 80 78
menno.van.breemen@aartsen.com