In the framework of the China Plan, launched by Prodeca, an export promoting company under the Department of Agriculture, the Catalan Councillor Meritxell Serret met on Tuesday afternoon with representatives of major distribution platforms for Chinese agricultural companies.
The meeting this year has served to consolidate the promotion of Catalan food companies in the Chinese market, with a number of deals signed with Catalan firms in the citrus fruit sector. Thus, the Chinese delegation took advantage of this opportunity to visit Nufri, Fruta de Palacio and Cítricos Tierras del Ebro, which already received an order for mandarins last October.
The meeting is part of the China Plan, launched in 2013, which has served to sign a cooperation agreement with the China Agricultural Wholesale Market Association (CAWA), making it possible to organise a series of actions aimed at improving relations, with two objectives: promoting a closer economic cooperation in the food sector with Spain and holding meetings with Catalan businesses to have access to a wider range of sellers.
The next goal of this plan is to introduce beef and stonefruit in the Chinese market, after the Ministry of Agriculture has obtained permission from the Chinese authorities to start exporting peaches, nectarines and Paraguayo peaches next season.
According to Councillor Serret, "the idea is for Catalan products to reach the world's largest food market in a systematic and continuous fashion. We are coming up with strategies that will allow us to make exports to China something normal for our sector. We wish to become better acquainted with the needs of the Chinese market, but we also want to find the best way to ship our products to China. In this sense, innovation will allow us to improve the fruit's preservation so that it can arrive to China in the best possible condition."
