Despite the first container of Italian kiwifruit already being on the water bound for Shanghai, a report from Spanish export organisation Fepex suggests that China continues to refuse entry to European kiwifruit.
Amid claims of a political reprisal following President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial meeting with the Dalai Lama in Poland last December, French kiwifruit exporters have reportedly told Fepex that China's authorities have failed to grant them access, even though it was suggested at the end of last year that both France and Italy had passed Chinese inspections.
According to Fepex, the Chinese quarantine authority has yet to publish the list of plantations and packhouses certified to export kiwifruit to China.
However, in mid-January it was reported that Italian kiwifruit exporters were free to ship the fruit directly toChina following the announcement that a protocol signed recently by thetwo countries' governments had been officially ratified.
French exporters have told Fruitnet.com that a similar ratification of their own protocol, following similar inspections of post-harvest storage and export facilities in France, remains outstanding.
Figures cited by Fepex show that the EU exported 1,892 tonnes of fruit and vegetables to China in 2007, a figure forecast to rise to 2,593 tonnes in 2008.
In comparison, EU imports of Chinese fruit and vegetables reached 192,882 tonnes during the January to November period of 2008, against 197,495 tonnes in 2007.
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