The Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker, announced that the South Korean sanitary authority, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA), approved the entry into that market of the national fresh Hass avocado, with the publication of the phytosanitary requirements that must meet Chilean producers to finalize exports.

The owner of the farm stressed that “this is very good news for our avocado producers, since we are in a very good moment of the season. We have to complete a couple of steps, such as, for example, sending a list of participants interested in exporting avocados to Korea, in addition to waiting 30 days for the start of shipments, but by the end of October it would already be ready to start. This is a joint effort between the public and private sectors, where the commitment of producers and exporters is essential to comply with the sanitary measures that the markets impose on us ”.

For his part, the National Director of SAG, Horacio Bórquez, explained that “this opening is the result of work that the Agricultural and Livestock Service has been carrying out since 2017, when negotiations with the APQA began, and which included the visit of a delegation of Korean experts to our country with the aim of knowing the fruit production and certification systems at the beginning of 2020, just before the travel restrictions due to Covid-19 began. We were well evaluated, thanks to the close work we maintain with our producers, and this is the result of this alliance where we all benefit ”.

It should be noted that South Korea is a country with more than 50 million inhabitants, therefore this announcement represents an important business opportunity for this area of ​​national agriculture.

This was stated by the president of ASOEX, Ronald Bown, who indicated that “diversifying the destination markets for Chilean fruit exports is key to continue growing and developing our industry, for which, we very much welcome the opening of Korea from South for Chilean avocados, which joins the recent opening of Australia. This announcement also comes at a very opportune moment for the national avocado sector, since it coincides with the beginning of the harvest and export season of these fruits. There was a lot of interest in achieving the opening of the Korean market, since it is a market where there is consumption of avocados, therefore, we have positive expectations for exports ”, he specified.

Bown stressed that this opening would not have been possible without the joint work between the public and private sectors. “We appreciate all the efforts made by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural and Livestock Service, the Embassy of Chile in South Korea, as well as the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations, for the efforts made to improve and open new opportunities for Chilean fruits. "

During the 2019-2020 fruit season, Chile exported 118.981 tons of avocados to different markets around the world. The main destination was Europe (72% of total exports), followed by Latin America with 11,6% of total shipments.

Asia ranks third with a 8,6% share of total exports. Within Asia, Chile currently exports avocados to China, Hong Kong, Japan and India.