Jeju Tangerines Hit the Silk Road, Marking First Exports to Uzbekistan

Jeju tangerines will be exported to Uzbekistan for the first time, eight months after the quarantine negotiations were concluded. A total of 41 tonnes will be supplied to local stores this month alone, including the initial 2-tonne shipment being flown in.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) held the “Ceremony for the First Export of Jeju Tangerines to Uzbekistan and Joint Shipment of Jeju Agricultural Products” on the 12th at the Jeju City Agricultural Cooperative’s Agricultural Products Distribution Center, with the cooperative serving as host.
The tangerines being exported by air that day will pass through Incheon Airport and reach consumers at stores of Korzinka, the local market’s largest supermarket chain. Following the initial shipment, two container loads (about 39 tonnes) from Jocheon Agricultural Cooperative are scheduled to leave the Port of Busan in mid-month and head to Uzbekistan via Vladivostok, Russia. Quarantine negotiations have now been concluded for the export of Korean tangerines to five countries: the United States, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Uzbekistan.
The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency began quarantine negotiations in February last year by formally requesting that Uzbekistan allow imports. In February this year, it designated citrus fruits as a priority product for export quarantine negotiations and accelerated the talks; the two countries reached a final agreement in March. Last June, the agency designated three sites as export quarantine complexes, including Jeju City Agricultural Cooperative, Jocheon Agricultural Cooperative and the Jeju Citrus Cooperative Trading Office.
Jeong Gyeong-seok, Director General for Food Industry Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, “The quarantine negotiations were concluded just over a year after we requested import approval in February last year, and the first shipment followed eight months later. This was the result of the government and producing regions keeping pace with each other. Since fresh agricultural products can only be exported after clearing quarantine, we will move swiftly to pursue quarantine negotiations covering promising export products and countries, and continue to expand the markets open to our agricultural products.”
Meanwhile, three export coordination bodies in Jeju pooled and jointly shipped a total of 126 tonnes that day, including 100 tonnes of tangerines, 25 tonnes of kiwifruit and 1 tonne of radishes. The tangerines are bound for Mongolia, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States; the kiwifruit for Mongolia, Japan and other destinations; and the radishes for Mongolia. The effort is seen as a model for unifying export channels across product categories and maximizing the results of joint marketing.
[email protected] Choi Yong-jun, Agriculture Specialist Reporter