A year after the U.S. inked a deal with China that opened agricultural trade, Sunkist Growers has moved over its first shipment. China had quarantined American fruit in 1980 because of an infestation from the Mediterranean Fruit Fly. Last April, a trade pact China signed with the United States paved the way for the citrus trade, as well as the opening of the Chinese market to other agriculture products such as rice and grain. Sunkist and other agriculture cooperatives and companies had lobbied for seven years for the opening of the Chinese market. Sunkist estimates the Chinese market will account for $500 million in sales over the next five years. That could have a big impact on Ventura County farmers, whose produce accounts for 35 percent of Sunkist sales. The deal could mean an additional $175 million in sales for the county’s growers. “We expect it to be a huge market,” said Claire Peters, Sunkist spokeswoman. “The potential is huge because of the number of people over there. And the Chinese love oranges.” Sunkist had revenues of more than $1 billion in 1998. But the cooperative reported a significant drop to $851 million for 1999 because of a freeze last winter. Under terms of the U.S.-China agricultural agreement reached last year, China agreed to open its market and to dramatically reduce its tariffs from the current 40 percent to 12 percent no later than 2004. The first shipment of Sunkist fruit to be sold in China, well over 1,000 cartons worth, departed from the Port of Long Beach on March 27 and is expected to arrive in China April 17. Chinese officials visited U.S. crops earlier this year as the final condition before opening trade. The visit was to inspect crops and med-fly monitoring efforts. Sunkist already markets its citrus products in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and other parts of Asia.
