02/01/05 China an opportunity?

For quite a while, many in the Northwest apple industry have heard about the impending coming of Chinese apples to the U.S. marketplace. In fact, China's government has already submitted a request with U.S.D.A. to allow export of its apples to America. China still has to go through a detailed series of steps, including the meeting of phytosanitary standards, before their apples will find themselves in our retail stores. But while some in the U.S. apple industry have seen this as a foregone conclusion that they are going to face stiff competition in our turf, others are taking the opposite view, believing China is ripe to become one of our nation's largest importer of apples. Nancy Foster of the U.S. Apple Association says our apple industry already sends about a million boxes a year to China, with some marketers predicting that volumes will grow. FOSTER: China is an emerging opportunity. Some of the marketers say they expect volumes to grow as disposable incomes increase. We know they like apples. If we can meet quality and food safety standards and expectations, it will help give us a competitive edge. But just as China has hoops to jump through from a regulatory, sanitary and phytosanitary point of view before their apples will be allowed into our nation, Foster says the same process is on going for U.S. apple producers even with entry into the Chinese market. FOSTER: We talk about exporting apples to China and a work plan and mitigation. That's what the Chinese are talking about with us.