According to fruit industry journals, Jalisco is set to become the first state in Mexico to sign a protocol agreement to allow exports of fresh berries to China.
A delegation from the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (Sagarpa) is travelling to China this week to meet with their Chinese counterparts to hammer out the details of the deal, www.fruitnet.com reported this week.
The website quoted Sagarpa’s representative in Jalisco, Javier Guízar, as saying the state’s planted area of 3,000 hectares of berries – much of it on the shores of Lake Chapala near Jocotepec – was likely to increase considerably in 2015 to satisfy demand in China.
Around 85 percent of Jalisco’s berry production is sold overseas to markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.