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WTO Entry to Have Minimal Impact on Chinese Citrus Producers: Experts
Experts at an international symposium on citrus said Tuesday China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will have a minimal impact on Chinese citrus producers.
David Hanlon, director of the Australia-based Resource Consulting Services Ltd., said increasing imports of fruits target different market segments and will not pose much threat on Chinese citrus producers.
Chinese citrus producers mostly supply the mass market, while imported fruits are limited to the top end of the market due to their relative higher prices, he added.
"The hottest competition (between Chinese and foreign producers) may appear in agricultural products like wheat, maize, rice and cotton," Hanlon said.
China produced 10.78 million tons of citrus fruits in 1999, about 14 times more than in 1980, making it the third-largest citrus producer in the world, following the United States and Brazil.
Wu Houjiu, deputy director of the Citrus Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agriculture, said the citrus processing industry will face challenges when China enters the WTO, and orange juice producers may be affected the most.
Chinese orange juice producers have developed slowly due to the high production cost and unsuitable local strains of oranges, Wu said.
The volume of imported citrus juice, as a result, is currently 10 times the domestic output, he cited statistics as saying.
Meanwhile, the potential Chinese market remains rosy for citrus product suppliers, as China's annual per capita orange juice consumption is estimated to rise from 0.1 liters to about two to three liters in the next 10 to 20 years, Wu said. The total amount will be up to three million tons by that time, he said.
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