May 23, 2013

After signing an agreement with the Chinese government, Portuguese Agriculture Minister Assunção Cristas said that the country's dairy producers can start exporting their products to China.

"We finally have the good news that the Chinese market is open to Portuguese milk as well as milk derivatives," said Cristas who also hoped the agreement would be extended to other products such as pork, fruit and horses.

The matter of dairy exports, brought up by Portugal in 2008, "took some time" mainly due to health and sanitation issues involved in the "internationalisation" process and play a "very important" role.

Cristas said that this was an unparalleled opportunity for Portuguese producers seeking markets for their products, "that are of a high quality and characterised by a high level of food safety, which is of particular interest to China."

The agreement was signed by the Chinese deputy Minister for General Administration of Inspections and Quarantine and by the Portuguese Minister for Agriculture, the Sea and Land Planning, Assunção Cristas.

The Chinese market has 1.3 billion people and annual consumption of food products worth €70 billion (US$90 billion).