Chinese agricultural officials are close to allowing Washington state’s Red and Golden Delicious apples back into China next month after a two-year ban. It is unclear if that will also open up the US import of apples from China, which produces half the world’s apples.
The ban was imposed on Washington, which supplies 80 percent of America’s apples, after a shipment to China in early 2012 was declared to be carrying “postharvest diseases.”
US agricultural officials fought the ban last year, claiming that any diseases in the 2012 shipment only affected crab apples for pollination.
According to the Northwest Horticultural Council, agricultural representatives from both countries met in Xiamen, China, earlier in November, and agreed to new inspections by Chinese officials of Golden Delicious and Red Delicious apples in Washington.
With a surplus forecast of 15 million bushels of apples in Washington over the next few years because of increased plantings, Washington growers hope to cash in on the growing Chinese market even as the potential opening of the US market will possibly have them competing with Chinese brands at home.