www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Prime 已作廢 不再更新

Chile's fruit takes root in China

By Mike Peters in Tianjin | China Daily | Updated: 2012-06-27 08:08
 

Chile's fruit takes root in China

Premier Wen Jiabao meets Chilean President Sebastian Pinera during a banquet at La Moneda, the presidential palace, in Santiago on Monday. Jose Manuel De La Maza / Presidencia De Chile Via Agence France-Presse

Andes Resort International sounds like the kind of place where Premier Wen Jiabao would be staying on his current trip to South America. But the property is a mere hour's drive from central Beijing, and there are more surprises when you get there.

The nation of Chile makes most people think of mines and wines - industries that represent the bulk its business with China and other countries. But on this suburban site in Jixian county, Tianjin, 23 hectares devoted to growing grapes and fruit trees present a fresh opportunity for trade.

Chile is a major producer of fruits and vegetables, and the demonstration farm on the resort grounds is a showcase for Chile's produce.

Thanks to a free trade agreement negotiated in 2006, Chilean fruit sales are expanding rapidly in China, says Nicolas Serrano Rolin, director of the Trade Commission Office of Chile in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

The largest fresh fruit exporter in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile ranks behind only Thailand in fruit exports to China and No 1 in grapes, cherries, plums and apples, Rolin said. Total fruit sales surged 80 percent year-on-year to $441 million last year.

Most imported Chilean fruits are distributed from the Guangzhou Jiangnan Fruits and Vegetables Wholesale Market to major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Dalian, said Lin Yetao, a public relations manager of the market. Lin said Chilean fruit accounts for about 20 percent of the imported fruit his company handles.

Lin credits the growth to the free trade agreement - which cut duties on Chilean imports and made the country's fruits more cost-effective - and to the ever-increasing purchasing power of Chinese consumers. Plus, he notes, Chile is in the Southern Hemisphere, so it's harvesting and shipping fruits when they are not in season in China.

The demonstration farm, meanwhile, adds another dimension to the relationship, proving a chance to share Chile's fruit-farming expertise with China as the demand for fresh and safe food rises.

"The farming cultures are very different," said Alamiro Morales Mil, a Chilean agronomist who was recently in the apricot fields thinning the young fruits. Since there were a lot of visitors on this day, Morales was working in traditional costume: a flat-brim hat, colorful vest and ornate boots. He was plucking two of every three small green fruits off the branch, rolling them off his palm into a trash bag - a practice that makes his local work crew wince.

"Farmers here have traditions that were born in hard times," he said. "For them, the more grapes on a vine, the more plums on a tree, the better. The idea that you can add value by thinning, so the fruits that remain get all of the tree's energy, is pretty new here."

It takes a while, he said, to convince people that having fewer fruits that are bigger, sweeter and better shaped adds value that newly affluent Chinese will pay for. "The market decides," he added. "When imported fruits command good prices here, the Chinese growers want to get a piece of that business. And they should."

The learning isn't all one-way.

"When we came here, our Chinese growers were surprised and amused when we had top of the line arbors shipped over here for trellising the grapes," said Luis Schmidt Montes, Chile's ambassador to China. "They asked us what we were going to do with those, and when we explained, they all said 'Bu hao!' (No good!) very loudly."

The site isn't too far from Shandong province, China's coastal agricultural zone that is temperate enough to expose grape vines to winter weather. But the northern part of Tianjin gets kissed with -20 C and chilly winds. Here, the vines must be planted at an angle so they can be covered with soil during the coldest months, the way they protect vines in the blustery climates of Gansu and Xinjiang.

"We still have those arbors," Schmidt said with a chuckle, "as a monument to our foolishness."

That miscalculation aside, the Chileans offer a lot of expertise. "Table grapes represent 42 percent of our agricultural exports," Schmidt said.

Schmidt himself has been ready since the 1990s, when he was president of Chile's top agribusiness group. A man who speaks with a lot of energy and passion, Schmidt couldn't generate the same level of enthusiasm from the agriculture ministries in Beijing or Santiago. Finally, he decided he needed some "show and tell", and he urged both countries to collaborate on a demonstration fruit farm that would show Chinese farmers how they could meet the country's growing demand as well as showcase Chile's best produce.

"My agriculture minister at the time just looked at me and shook his head," Schmidt said, shaking his own head with a grin.

"He said, 'We have $100 million in trade with China, and 99 percent of that is in copper, in mining. And you want to make a farm? You are foolish!'"

However, after the Jixian site on the edge of Tianjin was settled on, Schmidt's "crazy" idea began to blossom. Today there is a five-star hotel, conference center, golf course and an "ecology garden" on the site - not to mention a row of huge replicas of the famous stone heads of Easter Island. Schmidt also made a winning pitch to acquire Chile's pavilion from the Shanghai Expo 2010 site after that world fair was over.

The resulting complex represents both the changes in that coastal area - more tourism, less farming - and Chile's determination to get noticed. The hotel and meeting rooms are usually booked to capacity.

Schmidt loves to take groups out to see the project, boisterously testing the exercise equipment in the hotel's health club, pouring wine for guests and leading after-dinner songs. Fresh fruit may be good business, but under his wing it seems to be a lot of fun, too.

Li Wenfang and Shu Meng in Guangzhou contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

Editor's picks
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 久久看视频 | 午夜成年人网站 | 在线免费观看国产视频 | 日日摸人人拍人人澡 | 国产成人久久久精品毛片 | 久久狠狠色狠狠色综合 | 亚洲成人免费在线观看 | 男人免费看片 | 荡公乱妇蒂芙尼中文字幕 | 一级在线毛片 | 国产精品国产精品国产三级普 | 欧美一区二区三区免费 | 日韩午夜在线观看 | 亚洲天堂视频网站 | 日本欧美色 | 久草在线影 | 97视频免费上传播放 | 成人精品视频在线观看播放 | 91九色国产porny | 日本天堂网| 免费看a级肉片 | 色综合在 | 贵州美女一级纯黄大片 | 手机在线一区二区三区 | 在线久草视频 | 欧美精品一区二区三区免费 | 明星国产欧美日韩在线观看 | 免费一级欧美大片久久网 | 欧美日韩永久久一区二区三区 | 国产呦系列呦 | 福利姬在线精品观看 | 亚洲2020天天堂在线观看 | 日本视频在线免费观看 | 成人三级做爰在线视频 | 日韩欧美视频一区二区三区 | 亚洲精品国产一区二区三 | 午夜免费69性视频爽爽爽 | 免费不卡毛片 | 久久久www免费看片 久久久www免费人成看片 | 免费99视频有精品视频高清 | 国产精品一一在线观看 |