Asia Fruitlogística, a great showcase for Andalusian products
A total of four Andalusian fruit and vegetable companies promoted their products in the most important fair for the sector in the Asia-Pacific area: Asia Fruitlogística, which was held from last Wednesday, September 4 until last Friday, September 6 in Hong Kong ( China). There they have come with the support of the Ministry of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior, through Extenda-Andalusian Agency for Foreign Promotion.
The firms in the region participate in the event in a group within the Spanish pavilion organized by ICEX in the Asia World-Expo fairgrounds in Hong Kong, where Andalusian companies have the opportunity to show their fruit and vegetable offer before thousands of professional visitors, and to make valuable commercial contacts with local importers and distributors to boost the presence of Andalusian products in the area.
According to information from ICEX, Hong Kong is a very interesting market for fruit and vegetable products, since in 2018 it imported 3,706 million euros in fruit and 662 million euros in vegetables. But, in addition, the celebration of the fair in Hong Kong makes it a commercial platform of great interest to reach the markets of Asia Pacific, among which continental China stands out in the face of the growing opening of the Chinese market for Spanish fruits, through of the corresponding bilateral signed fruit protocols, which now cover citrus fruits, stone fruits and table grapes.
Proof of this is that in its 2018 edition, Fruitlogistics Asia hosted 826 exhibitors from 46 countries, through which up to 13,500 visitors from 70 countries passed, 64% of them from Asia.
Andalusian Delegation
The companies present in Asia Fruitlogística are Little Holland (Cádiz), SAT Guadex (Córdoba), Primor (Sevilla) and Unica Fresh (Almería). The organization of this action by Extenda will be co-financed with funds from the European Union through the P.O. ERDF of Andalusia 2014-2020, endowed with a community contribution of 80%.
Fruit and Vegetable Exports to China
Andalusian fruit and vegetable exports from Andalusia reached a new record for the first time exceeding 3,700 million euros in the first six months of a year since there are homologated data (1995). Thus, in the January-June 2019 period, the international sales of the Andalusian fruit and vegetable sector totaled 3,796 million euros, which represents an increase of 8.1% over the same period of the previous year, according to data from Extenda-Agencia Andaluza de Foreign Promotion
With these data, Andalusia remains the national leader in fruit and vegetable exports, with 43% of exports from all over Spain and is the fastest growing community of the three most exporters, ahead of the Valencian Community (+ 2%) and Murcia (-1.1%), also standing three points above the national growth in this period (+ 5.2%).
China is the third non-EU market for Andalusian fruits and vegetables, to which the community doubled its exports in the first half of 2019 to reach 15.4 million euros. This 123% increase doubles the pace of national growth (+ 58%) and positions Andalusia as the second largest community in exports to the country, only advanced by the Valencian Community (27.2 million).
The sector also maintains a healthy trade balance with China, with a surplus of 12.9 million for the first six months of the year and a coverage rate of 608%, which means that exports multiply by six to imports.
On the other hand, it is the provinces of Seville and Cordoba that concentrate the vast majority of fruit and vegetable sales to China: Seville exported in the first half of 2019 worth 69 million euros, 72% of the total after doubling its sales with a 130% increase over the same period last year; while Córdoba represents 27.6% of exports, that is, 4.2 million, which is also double the sales compared to January-June 2018.
Foreign promotion of the sector
The fruit and vegetable companies are part of a sector, the agri-food industry, whose configuration as an outstanding engine of the Andalusian economy makes it one of the main axes of action of the Ministry of Presidency, Public Administration and Interior that, through Extenda, has designed a multitude of specific actions for its promotion.
Thus, so far in 2019, a total of 135 fruit and vegetable companies have participated in 88 Extenda shares, which have generated 256 participations (one company can participate in several actions).
Likewise, the firms of the sector will have the possibility of participating in this same month of September a fruit and vegetable mission to the United Kingdom and Ireland and another to Italy.
