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Saturday, November 06, 2004
More RP fruits to enter China market next year
LAND Bank of the Philippines chairman Luis Lorenzo said government is still studying carefully the terms of the free trade agreement (FTA) that will allow the country to avail of China's early harvest program (EHP).
Lorenzo who is also head of the Quedan Rural and Credit Guarantee Corp (Quedancor) admitted that the prospect of exporting more fruits and other agricultural products to China is well enticing.
Lorenzo, who was keynote speaker of the recent 4th Mindanao Fruit Industry Conference said "the Philippines agreed to avail of the program with a very keen interest to monitor and control ability to import so we don't have a deluge of imported products from China."
The two countries are finalizing the agreement, which is expected to take effect next year.
The program is expected to reduce and gradually eliminate tariff rates on agreed products traded between both countries at the start of 2005.
At present, imported fruits from the Philippines are taxed 17 percent by the Chinese government while products from Thailand and Malaysia, which had earlier availed of the EHP enter China tax-free.
Fruit subnetwork team leader of the Bureau of Agricultural Research and University of Southern Mindanao professor Pablito Pamplona said Chinese importers and government officials are interested in importing banana, mango, mangosteen, longkong on a year round basis from the Philippines and pomelo, apaya, and melon on a seasonal basis.
Pamplona was part of the study team that visited China last April to determine the prospects for Philippine fruits. The team visited Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen, cities within the China Special Economic Zone.
Chinese traders are looking at the country as a major supplier of tropical fruits, he said. With a population of about 1.3 billion and a growth rate of 8.9 percent, China is considered an emerging economic giant and the world's biggest importer of agricultural products.
Last year, the country's income from mango exports reached $59.4 million, up by almost 66 percent from $35.8 million in 2002.
China contributed $504,000 of the total figure, a 24 percent rise from its 2002 imports pegged at $405,387, data from Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) further showed.
In 2002, Mindanao accounted for 30 percent of the country's one million metric ton mango production. About four percent of the country's total harvest was shipped out during the said period.
Fresh banana and banana chips from the country are also a favorite among Chinese nationals who imported $357.3 million in fresh and processed banana from the Philippines last year.
Mindanao supplies at least 47 percent of the country's total banana production.
To strengthen the country's foothold in the China market, a more intensified promotion of off season mango production and exportation is needed.
This technology allows growers to harvest during "off season" which starts at the second half of the year.
With this, Mindanao farmers can grow mangoes almost all year round.
The Mindanao Fruit Industry (MinFruit) Council, which organized the conference, has been training farmers in off season mango production with help from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the USAid-funded Growth with Equity in Mindanao.
According to Minfruit Council President Antonio Partoza, more than 600 hectares have been covered by the initiative.
(November 6, 2004 issue)
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