Due to bad timing, fruit growers from Extremadura were unable to ship plums, peaches and nectarines to China last year. In this campaign, however, it will become possible.
The agreement signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine of China will also allow the export of Paraguayo peaches, although this fruit only accounts for a small share of the stonefruit grown in the region.
However, it won't yet be possible to export cherries. In the Jerte Valley, producers hope that the governments of Madrid and Beijing will soon be able to include it in the protocol for export. Spain is the first state of the EU authorised by China to export stonefruit to this market. Chinese stonefruit imports are small, having purchased only 17,137 tonnes of plums from Chile, New Zealand and the US and 74 tonnes of peaches and nectarines from Australia.