Although B.C. exports about $29 million worth of cherries annually – including about $7.5 million to Taiwan and $5 million to Hong Kong – none make it to mainland China because they're deemed unsafe.
However, a political agreement that would allow B.C. cherries and blueberries into China could soon change that.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao witnessed the signing of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement September 8 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vladivostok, Russia.
The agreement aims to increase investment between the two countries and could open the door to China for B.C. cherry and blueberry growers.
The obstacle is now bureaucratic rather than political, said Norm Letnick, who was appointed B.C. agriculture minister on September 5 and spoke with federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz about the issue a week later.
"The reason we've been given is that [Chinese bureaucracy] requirements are very onerous," Letnick told Business in Vancouver September 20.
"We think they're too onerous. We can export our [cherries and blueberries] to the U.S. or Chile and don't face the same requirements."
Canada Food Inspection Agency staff are working with China's counterpart, the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine, and Letnick expects a resolution soon.
New Chinese consul general Liu Fei agrees that B.C. cherries and blueberries should be on Chinese supermarket shelves because they're high quality and would lower prices for Chinese consumers, who now pay high prices for the fruit.
One of Fei's first trips within B.C. was to the Okanagan.
"I like to promote B.C. cherries and blueberries as China's market is a big one and B.C. has big production," she said. "We're looking for new [import] markets."
Earlier this year, Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said that selling food to China is a priority. Premiers worked on building relationships in September when nine of Canada's 13 provincial and territorial leaders visited China as part of a Council of the Federation (COF) trip.
The premiers of B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan stayed after COF meetings to promote western Canadian food products at a New West Partnership event at a Beijing hotel. •
