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María José Haro Sly, Argentinian student at Silk Road School and official of the Secretariat for International Relations of the Province of Tucuman, participated in the SIAL Food Innovation Fair in Shanghai, where she interviewed the Argentine Ambassador in China, Diego Guelar.

The fair of SIAL is one of the most important Fair worldwide in the area of food and is the best in Asia, has more than 200 thousand meters of exhibition space. In the 2019 edition, more than 4300 companies participated and more than 120 thousand professionals in the commercialization sector. At the Fair participated major Food production and export companies from Argentina in the meat, sea food, wine, grains, among other sectors.   

Ambassador Guelar talked about the bilateral relations between China and Argentina as strategic partners and expressed the importance of the Chinese market for Argentinian exporters. He congratulated Maria for being part of the Silk Road School at Renmin University.    

M: I am an official of the government of Tucuman and a student at the Silk Road School at the University of Renmin.

DG: Congratulations.

M: Thank you.

M: We understand that the bilateral relationship with China covers a series of aspects that go from the cultural, the political, the scientific and the commercial cooperation. I imagine that his presence at this fair it has to do with positioning Argentine products in the Chinese market. On that, I would like you to tell us what are the potentialities of the Chinese market for Argentina?

DG: Today more than potentialities are realities, today we are on the Chinese agenda on many issues, ranging from nuclear energy to cherries, going through all the meats, fruits, all vegetables. There is a great Chinese understanding of Argentina's capabilities. Unfortunately, we do not reciprocate, we are the ones who do not understand what happens in China. In that sense the great work is no longer to convince the Chinese consumer, nor the Chinese government, nor Chinese companies, it is to internalize in Argentina, the possibilities we have. This is the great market for Argentina, we have product, we have a price. We could be producing 50 times more than what we produce now, and we would not finish selling it to China. Today we also have very specific possibilities, because in addition to the consulates we have and the Embassy, I also direct the consulates. We have agreements with the main e-commerce platforms. We have agreements with the main electronic sales platforms such as Alibaba or JD Com. We currently have 5 distribution centers in the main free ports of China, which you know are Tianjin, Shanghai, Guanzhou, Hainan. We have today all that an Argentine export company needs to be provided with the distribution, sales and billing services. We did not have this before, until recently we talked about exporting to China and there was no way. Today the “how” is resolved. So it is very important, especially for the brothers from Tucumán, that they know they have an Embassy, that they have a consulate, that they have infrastructure, to receive their products. We have to concentrate on working and producing more. The rest is all solved.

M: Well thank you very much. In that sense I send you the greetings of the Governor Juan Manzur.    

DG: Please, send him mines.

M: I would be grateful if you can give some suggestions to the companies in Tucumán on what are the concrete possibilities to export to China and what are the channels for this.

DG: A very important fact is to contact the Investment and Export Agency that depends on the Ministry of Production. We use the agency as a focal point. And the distribution centers, the sales centers by e-commerce, are coordinated by the agency. Of course, you can contact directly with our Embassy and consulates, the channels are used by each one as they wish. But today, to mention one, the agency is a channel, a very important one. To offer their products and they can be assisted, because we are effectively 20 thousand kilometers away and our country has been isolated for a long time so we have to assist and help our exporters. But let them know that today the lanes are open.

M: And besides the commercial cooperation, what other aspects would be important to work from the north of Argentina with China? And in particular the province of Tucumán.

DG: Well, I would say that everything we produce in the north has a market in China. An important fact is to understand that you have to know the market. That you have to understand the packaging. There is great curiosity today. The supermarkets that offer foreign products ... the Chinese real market for us are not 1400 million are 200 million. But 200 million is a great fable. We are talking about 200 million high-income consumers. It's huge. But you have to understand how they market, how they present it. Nothing I see in a Chinese supermarket can not be done in Argentina, we do not need additional machinery, nothing. On the contrary, I would say that a medium supermarket in Argentine, is better assortment than a Chinese supermarket of the highest quality. And all the products are exactly the same. It would never occur to me to take as a gift my relatives in Buenos Aires, a product of the Chinese supermarket because ours are better. And I do not say it as an Argentine Ambassador, it is like that and anyone who makes the experience will be able to verify that what I am saying is true. Now, why then what we have in exhibition in our supermarkets in the gondolas of Tucumán, for example, is not offer in China? This is important and of course we are available to provide all the information you need. A producer, an exporter, an association of producers. Count on us. But I tell you, and I give absolutely certification that it is true.    

M: Thank you! As I told you, I am a student of the Silk Road program at the University of Renmin. And I wanted to ask you what are the opportunities for Argentina within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative?    

DG: Well I think they are very big, the Belt and Road is the proposal of connection of China with the world. We are partners of the Belt and Road, for being strategic partners of China. The reception of the Chinese authorities is exceptional. Today, the only health status which is absolutly confidence is with Argentina. Around the world. When we talk about Argentina, that nobody trusts, that the financial system, that the crisis ... the certain thing is that here is 100% health confidence in Argentine agricultural products. This is a fact that I repeat, but I know that there are still millions of Argentines who do not understand it. You are living here, you are possibly in the most important university in economics, and I congratulate you for being in Renmin, which is a great university. On Thursday I have to give a class on Remin, and really I think it is very important, and I promise you to be a great diffuser, this seems incredible but it is so. And if we Argentines realize this, only with the presence in the Chinese market we change the reality of Argentina.    

M: We are currently on the international Renmin campus which is in Suzhou near Shanghai. So you are invited to visit us at the school of the Silk Road School.

DG: I compromise you to make me available and we'll set a date and I'll chat with your classmates.

DG: Good luck!

M: We are in touch.