WASHINGTON: Uruguay wants to promote the export of its citrus products to China to offset the fall in sales in the European Union (EU), official sources said. In that sense, the deputy director of the Directorate of Livestock Services of the Ministry of Livestock (MGAP), Federico Montes, said that China, which had had its doors closed to Uruguayan citrus products since 2012, was an attractive market.
“Our expectations for 2016 is to start sending to China the products that are losing their footing in other markets, such as the European Union (EU), so this is a year of market exploration,” Montes said. “China is attractive but it requires different products than the EU and the US,” he added.
The target set by the MGAP for the citrus sector this year is to achieve exporting 95,000 tons of products. According to Government data, so far this year Uruguay has sold 17,000 tons of citrus abroad, mainly to the US (50% of the total volume), Russia (20%) and the EU (17 %).
In addition, Montes said that in 2015 Uruguay had sold 95 million dollars in citrus and that the current harvest would generate a minor economic impact because of the decline in production due to bad weather, mainly flooding. Meanwhile, the director of International Affairs of MGAP, Mario Piacenza, said China was a strategic destination for Uruguay because it was the main destination for the country’s exports.
“Regarding the citrus industry, a very interesting market window opens. We’ll need to conduct a study, analysis, and adapt to that market’s requirements to get the product and fruit variety that the consumer requires,” said Piacenza.
On the other hand, he said, the Government is negotiating phytosanitary conditions with Mexico, India, the Philippines and Indonesia to enter their citrus products in those markets. “It is very risky to place most of the production in one or two markets, that’s why its important to increasingly open new markets so that exporters have more possibilities,” said Piacenza.
