The Chilean Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker, announced the sanitary opening of citrus to China, who authorized customs for the export of the packings and orchards inspected in the visit carried out in August 2019.

“After 20 years we have opened the markets for all citrus fruits such as oranges, clementines, mandarins and lemons to China. This work of sanitary opening has become one of the fastest negotiations that Chile has had and will allow us to respond better to the needs that the new times demand of us, "said the head of agriculture, Antonio Walker.

Currently, the destination of exports is mainly concentrated in the United States with 283 thousand tons (84.4%). With the measure, the diversification of the citrus export market will benefit, which during 2019 336 thousand tons were exported. Of these, 29.7% correspond to oranges, 27.8% mandarins, 25.7% lemons and 15% clementines.

"With this measure, market diversification will benefit by favoring producers in the Coquimbo region, who have a share of 36.5% of total citrus exports, followed by the Valparaíso region with 31.2% and thirdly, the Metropolitan region with 16.1% of the total exported volume ”, added the head of the Agriculture portfolio, Antonio Walker.

The negotiation of the sanitary opening of citrus began in November 2018 with the delivery of the productive information of the different species during the official visit that Minister Antonio Walker made to China. From China Customs, they ratified the announcement, through their website, where it was reported that the first batch of packings and orchards are already authorized to export to China and in the coming days the suggestions to expedite the authorization of pending shipments will be known .

"We must continue to send information about the remaining establishments and orchards interested in exporting to China. We understand the importance of this, so we are in permanent communication with China Customs so that this process is as agile as possible, aiming to have all the interested establishments approved in the coming weeks, "concluded the head of agriculture.