China’s PPQ authorities still have yet to issue import permits for Washington apples because of concerns over potential post-harvest decay issues in the produce from two seasons ago, much to the frustration of the industry.
“With the impasse, we’ve had to bury Hong Kong in reds for Lunar New Year,” said Randy Eckert of Yakima Fruit. 'It’s not a good thing when you don’t have one of your major Red Delicious markets available.'
“We had been hopeful that a visit by a delegation of Chinese plant-quarantine officials last December would lead to a lifting of the embargo in time to supply fruit for Lunar New Year,” said Jim Archer of the industry association Northwest Fruit Exporters. “The outcome was not what we had wanted: the market is still closed.”
Indonesia has also raised the concerns of fruit exporters in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres by restricting shipment entry only to secondary ports that are several days’ travel to the main market of Jakarta as well as introducing a new import quota system.
At mid-season, Washington’s apple exports to Indonesia were down 35 per cent while shipments to mainland China were off by more than 83 per cent. India, the largest offshore market for Washington apples during the 2011/12 season, is down nearly 28 per cent so far this season.
Fortunately for the Washington industry, exports to both Canada and Mexico have increased dramatically, due in part to problems with their domestic crops.
As of early February, shipments to these two North American markets accounted for more than 41 per cent of Washington’s total export volume compared to 24 per cent at the end of the 2011/12 season.
Despite this boost, industry storage reports at the beginning of February show approximately 3.35m additional cartons of Red Delicious and 4.3m cartons of Fuji than for the same date in 2011.
A full report on the Washington apple season features in the March 2013 edition of Asiafruit Magazine. To order your copy, please go to www.fruitnet.com/subscriptions or e-mail subscriptions@fruitnet.com
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