China has not responded to a request by the Philippine government to send experts to China to identify the mango fruit pests allegedly carried by mango shipments from the country which was the basis for a new rule that cuts off imports from the Philippines unless the commodity is subjected to vapor heat treatment (VHT.
"The government has to pick up the pace in resolving this issue. Obviously the usual diplomatic channels are not enough and going into the technical issues will take a long time, we will never get the mango business in China going, maybe unorthodox approaches in collaboration with the private sector could be better," said Roberto Amores, president of the Mango Producers Exporters Confederation Inc. (MPECI) and the Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Inc. (Philfoodex).
In a special meeting with the National Mango Action Team (NMAT) yesterday, Amores said it is possible that China is insisting on the VHT method to retaliate against the delayed completion of the pest risk analysis (PRA) on carrots and other vegetables covered under the RP-China Early Harvest Program (EHP). Under the EHP, the Philippines allowed China to ship selected fresh vegetables to the Philippines at very low tariffs, but only if they pass the PRA.
"That’s how the exporters see the situation because other countries like Thailand are exporting fresh mangoes to China with no quarantine protocols, their product is not subjected to VHT and for several years, mango exporters from the Philippines had easy access to China through Hong Kong where no certificate of origin was being required," said Amores.
Amores said VHT is too expensive and its sudden imposition will unduly disrupt trade. He said the government should not ask for an extension after September because it would be an admission that VHT will be accepted as a method of treating fruit fly and other mango pests.
"There are other more effective and cheaper quarantine treatments," he said.
Hernani Golez, leader of NMAT said it would be very costly for exporters to invest in a new VHT facility which costs about P32 million. He said this will raise the cost of mangoes shipped to China by about P40 per kilo. The existing VHT facilities cannot be used because these are used solely for exports to the US, Korea and Japan.