Although Portugal is exporting apples more frequently, it still isn’t producing as many as it could, says Minister of Agriculture and Sea Assunção Cristas.
Visiting an orchard in Viseu last week, Cristas revealed that producers themselves want to sell to more markets.
“Just a month ago we started exporting Portuguese apples to Colombia,” she told journalists, adding that the government is currently trying to expand apple exports to South Africa, the US, India and China.
The number one priority, however, is to produce enough apples for national consumption.
Cristas was speaking on the first day of the Apple Fair in the Douro, a region that annually produces 60,000 tons of apples.
