On Tuesday 15 March, two thousand crates of Spanish lemons and oranges were destroyed at a Chinese port. Two days later, Spanish diplomatic confirmed that the 20-ton shipment destroyed did not meet export requirements and that they approved the decision not to allow the fruit shipment into the Asian Market.
On March 11, China’s quality-control agency notified Spanish authorities about the arrival of a “suspect” shipment. After checking for official documentation and failing to find any, the cargo was deemed illegal, and authorities even questioned whether it really came from Spain as claimed.
Both countries are negotiating new protocols that would enable Spain to export grapes, prunes and peaches to China
“The Spanish sector has an interest in going after fraudulent activity,” said Samuel Juárez, the agricultural advisor at the Spanish embassy in China. “It is important to conduct a proper investigation, but there should be no repercussions because we’ve seen that the controls work.”
According to the phony papers that came with the shipment, the fruit was grown in the Spanish province of Alicante. But “since the documents were irregular, there is the possibility that the fruit was not even Spanish to begin with,” said Juárez.
Chinese authorities buried the produce in quicklime to prevent the risk of infestations.
Spain is authorized to export citrus fruits to China since the introduction of pest and disease protocols for these products in 2007. The first Spanish shipments to the Asian country did not begin until 2014, however.
That year, Spain exported a million euros’ worth of citrus fruit to China, a figure that tripled in 2015. Exporters expect to see further growth this year.
The suspect oranges and lemons were packed in around 2,000 crates and valued at around €14,000 (USD 1.13). They were destroyed on March 15 at the port of Tianjin, some 200 kilometers from Beijing and the biggest gateway for foreign imports into the Asian market. The geographical distance between Spain and China makes it a difficult destination for fruit, since the shipment and refrigeration costs are higher that those in other markets.
Source: Fresh Plaza