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THE General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the People’s Republic of
China has approved eight Philippine mango companies to export fresh
mangoes to China.
Liang Wentao, Economic and
Commercial counselor of Embassy of China in the country, has
informed the Department of Agriculture that China’s AQSIQ “has
agreed to permit 8 Philippine mango companies to export fresh mango
to China.”
DA Undersecretary Berna
Romulo-Puyat said the protocol requires that mangoes to be exported
from the Philippines to China undergo heat treatment (either
Extended Hot Water Treatment (EHWT) or Vapor Heat Treatment (VHT) to
repel fruit flies and other pests in mangoes to be exported to
China.
The mango exporters have complied
with the requirements for mango heat treatment as specified in the
protocol, but Chinese experts must first inspect the heat treatment
facilities before the exporters get their accreditation.
Puyat told The Manila Times that
the Filipino exporters have been inviting the Chinese officials
since 2007 to inspect their facilities, which AQSIQ had ignored
until the DA intervened.
“Accreditation of the
facilities remains pending up to the first quarter of 2008. The
possibility of losing another year in the Chinese market is a big
loss to the mango industry,” Puyat added.
Puyat said the mango industry had
been seriously affected by the absence of the China market during
the year 2007.
With DA intervention, AQSIQ
finally sent two experts, Li Baisheng, deputy director of the
Kunshan Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, and Xu Liang, researcher
at the China Inspection and Quarantine Sciences, to conduct
inspection and evaluation of mango heat treatment facilities in the
Philippines from 25th to 30th of March.
The Philippine mango industry
expects a boost with AQSIQ’s approval of the exporters’
facilities as China, with its more than a billion population, is a
big market for widely popular fruit.
“I believe this will be a good
news to the 2.5 million Philippine mango farmers, and is surely a
solid demonstration of friendly cooperation between China and the
Philippines,” Liang said.
Approved exporters of fresh mango
China are: Phil Harvest Agro MKTG Corp., Mabuhay 2000 Entrp. INC,
Fruitful Harvest Corp., Wenatchee Marketing Corp.—for EHWT
facilities; Diamond Star Agro Products Inc., DHM Phil Produce Inc.,
Hilas Marketing Corp., Marsman Drysdlae Food Corp.—for VHT
facilities.
--Ira Karen Apanay
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