- Chile becomes the first South American country to reach this agreement with Korea for its shipments of fresh fruit
- The implementation of these ePhytos in all destination markets for Chilean fresh fruit would allow the industry to save around USD$100 million annually
On January 1, 2024, the ePhyto or Electronic Phytosanitary Certification between South Korea and Chile came into effect, allowing both countries to take advantage of all the benefits that the initiative entails to facilitate trade and improve plant health management.
“This is great news for our fresh fruit exports to South Korea, because the use of this type of certification will mean savings in time and resources for the public and private sectors. Chile becomes the first South American country to have the approval of electronic phytosanitary certification with South Korea, since this country is working with this system, besides Chile, only with Thailand, the European Union and China,” said Miguel Canala-Echeverría, general manager of Frutas de Chile.
He added: “With the implementation of ePhytos, the sending of paper certificates to the port of destination is eliminated, as well as the loss of documents, reissuance due to change of ports, importers or others. In addition, these certificates provide greater security, since adulterated documents are avoided, benefiting traceability and a faster response to unforeseen events that may arise during the export process.”
Canala-Echeverría highlighted that this achievement in Korea is key to advancing the implementation of ePhytos for shipments of Chilean fruit in all destination markets. “Today, there are markets such as the United States, Canada and the Middle East where 100% of our exports are made using electronic phytosanitary certification, while only 13% of shipments are made under this system in the Far East. Achieving the implementation of ePhytos in 100% of destination markets could mean savings for the sector in the order of USD 100 million annually.”
Likewise, the representative of Frutas de Chile observed: “We would like to thank and highlight the important work of the professionals from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Chilean embassy in Korea and its attaché office, and the professionals from the Agricultural and Livestock Service, to materialize this initiative. Likewise, we believe that the first official visit of the Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, in October 2023 to this country was key to speeding up the implementation of this system with Korea, and in which we were invited to participate; meeting with the Korean Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA), headed by its director Koh, Kyung Bong, in addition to the professionals Baer Hyung; Ra Youn-Kyoung; Lee Byoung-Guan and Jun OK-Kyoung. We also met with the Commissioner of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) of Korea, JungHee Kim.”
For his part, Rodrigo Astete, deputy director of SAG, in an interview with Frutas de Chile, said: “We are going to start with an initial model, keeping a paper copy of the certificate for greater security of the operation for up to 6 months, together with the ePhyto, while the proposal submitted by SAG on the use of a Contingency Procedure for possible transmission problems is reviewed. Electronic certification brings great advantages for exports. It provides security for our exports, reduces the costs of sending documentation, as well as significantly reduces all administrative aspects for sending documentation, providing greater security for the certification of our export fruit.”
Astete also highlighted that the implementation of ePhyto between Chile and Korea “was achieved in less than a year of work between both phytosanitary agencies”, all of which would reflect the good relations existing between both countries and their phytosanitary agencies.
Rodrigo Astete also reported that on November 30, 2023, a final technical meeting was held with APQA professionals in Seoul, definitively agreeing on the start of the ePhyto between Chile and Korea, which was notified to the director of the SAG, José Guajardo, through the official letter signed by Kyung Bong Koh, director of the APQA Export Management Division/Department.
The SAG technical visit was led by Rodrigo Robles, ECert coordinator of the Operations Sub-Directorate Division and consisted of a visit to the facilities of Incheon Airport, where it was possible to see what SAG is looking for and working on to integrate work with Korea and Asia.
Regarding this last visit, the Chilean agricultural and commercial attaché in Korea, José Miguel Sepúlveda, commented: “It was a very fruitful visit, since it was part of the 8th round of negotiations of the Chile-Korea FTA, an occasion in which we reiterated the importance of our commercial relations and that the electronic certification tool is essential to further strengthen this joint work of more than 20 years, beginning a new stage between both nations.”
Via: Press release from Chilean Fruits
