The president of the Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Organisation (Philfoodex), Roberto C. Amores, told BusinessWorld that agricultural exporters believe the restrictions are a result of an ongoing difficult relationship with China.
“We would want them to work out on the unpredictable restrictions that are imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture of China. Sometimes they are strict, sometimes not,” Amores said.
“Unpredictable quarantine measures are perceived by Filipino exporters to be related to political constraints,” he explained, adding that issues have been affecting all all agricultural segments.
Citing Philippine mangoes, Amores said that these require vapour heat treatment under Chinese regulations to kill fruit flies—even if exporters from other nations do not face the same consistently applied requirement.
“Vapour heat treatment will affect the shelf life and quality of the mango. We should be allowed to export mango without that quarantine treatment. They are talking about fruit flies, which affect Chinese agriculture more than they do the Philippines,” Amores said.
Such supposed unpredictability dates back to 2012, when tensions began to escalate over the Scarborough Shoal reef, which China has been developing into a man-made island—an issue which the Philippines referred to an United Nations Arbitral Tribunal.
In March that year, tons of fresh banana were forced to be discarded over allegations of excessive pest content and fungal infestation.
Food exports from the Philippines to China amounted to US$400m in 2015 out of overall shipments worth US$5bn.
Amores said he would like this figure to grow by as much as US$1bn as relations between the two countries thaw.
Newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist firebrand, recently turned his back on America, a longstanding ally, following talks in Beijing with President Xi. Following that visit, which brought home some US$24bn worth of agreements, Duterte’s rhetoric has become increasingly pro-China.
“Our wish list is we hope they remove the unpredictable restrictions from non-tariff measures. We wish an unimpeded flow of our agricultural exports to China. We wish China relaxes all those unpredictable quarantine measures if they are really serious in supporting the agricultural sector of the Philippines,” Amores added.