Peruvian Blueberries to Enter Chinese Market

Chinese blueberry lovers can taste Peruvian product already by the end of this autumn. As the Deputy Minister of the AQSIQ (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (China)) Mei Kebao and the head of SENASA (National Agrarian Health Service (Peru)) Jorge Barrenechea, national representatives in agricultural health of both countries, agreed on September 13th, Peruvian blueberries will gain access to the Chinese market in November. All protocols are expected to be signed during the visit of Xi Jinping to Lima for the APEC Forum on the 19-20th that month.

Mei Kebao pointed out that the access of more Peruvian products to the Chinese market is a priority and he will support the efforts to expedite the signing of the protocols. He said that China has a huge demand for imported foods to meet and Peru can contribute greatly to supplying it. In the first half of this year, China was only number eight importer of Peruvian agricultural products, accounting for 3% of the country’s total international sales.

In the meantime, 25 Peruvian companies, associations and chambers of commerce attended a face-to-face meeting with 50 Chinese companies in Beijing, where they discussed opportunities for business cooperation. “Currently, our company exports around 100 tons of mandarins to China a year, and we hope to increase the amount to up to 1,000 metric tons next year. I am also looking forward to exporting 1.5 to 2 million kilograms of blueberries to China in the next three to four years,” Roberto Vargas, the sales director of Agricola Norsur, said.

Nowadays, Chana’s import of blueberries is on the rise. The first country to export blueberries to China was Chile in 2012. Last year, Canada and, this year, Uruguay already followed on its steps. Both countries will be on the market from September-October. Peru is China’s fourth blueberry exporter with its product to appear on shopboards from November.