Novel PH Fruit Festival in Chongqing Impresses Local Consumers
18 December 2021 – The Philippine Consulate General in Chongqing staged today its first-ever Philippine Fruit Festival at SM City Chongqing. In line with the Consulate’s commercial diplomacy objectives, the festival offered an assortment of Philippine fresh fruits, principally bananas, pineapple, and coconut, which were prepared as Filipino comfort food in the form of snacks, desserts, and beverages, with a view to helping boost domestic demand for these goods.
The Consulate team made its entrance to the SM Mall atrium alongside an e-trike customized for the Philippine fiesta. In her welcome remarks, Philippine Consul General Flerida Ann Camille P. Mayo cited the robust trade relations between the Philippines and China, covering trade in fresh and processed fruits which, in 2020 alone, included 1.2 million metric tons of banana and banana products. The Consul General touted the versatility of the Philippine pineapple and banana whose fibers are also woven into cloths for the national dress as well as home and fashion accessories. “In promoting healthy commercial relations, we have chosen this special path, this special day close to Christmas and this special venue – the SM Mall in Chongqing – to also serve the equally important purpose of cultivating closer people-to-people ties between the Philippines and China,” Consul General Mayo said.
Philippine Commercial Consul Mario C. Tani of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Shanghai, in a recorded video message, conveyed the hope that the Philippine Fruit Festival and other promotional activities could open more opportunities for boosting trade and investment between the Philippines and China, including Chongqing as a priority market for the Philippines.
Mr. Gong Zhiyong, Deputy Director-General of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce and the Festival's Guest of Honor, congratulated the Philippine Consulate General for its initiative. “The Philippines has always been an important trading partner of Chongqing…and has a good economic development situation, a huge market potential, abundant labor, quality agricultural and marine products which can meet consumers’ demand for a high-quality life,” he noted. Mr. Gong recalled Chongqing Party Secretary Chen Min'er's official visit to the Philippines in 2019, that helped boost trade relations between Chongqing and the Philippines, which amounted to RMB 7 billion (about PHP 55 billion) for the period of January to October 2021. “We are willing to further strengthen exchanges with the Philippine Consulate General in Chongqing, jointly promote pragmatic cooperation between enterprises, create a good business environment, give full play to the role of business associations, strengthen investment information exchanges and key project promotion, expand the in-depth cooperation…in the fields of energy, infrastructure, electromechanical, automobile and motorcycle, construction, logistics, and tourism, among other areas, to create a bright future of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation,” he remarked.
Joining Consul General Mayo on stage to formally open the Festival were Mr. Gong, Mr. Feng Zimin (Deputy Director-General, Chongqing Foreign Affairs Office), Mr. Chen Shili (Secretary-General, Chongqing International Culture Exchange Center), Mr. Cheng Xu (Director, Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Commission), and Ms. Cheng Tiantian (Manager, SM City Chongqing). The Consul General personally led guests from the Chongqing government as they sampled the festival fare featuring Philippine coconut rum, banana chips, coconut milk, mango juice and snacks as well as professionally prepared fruit-based desserts and snacks such as the turron, maja blanca, bibingka, empanaditas, fruit salad, banana and pineapple smoothies, and coconut rum cocktails.
As part of the Consulate’s grassroots outreach, the festival’s three-hour program included the screening of promotional tourism videos for potential Chinese visitors to the Philippines, a Filipino martial arts demonstration by Chinese practitioners, as well as Filipino children’s games such as luksong tinik and sipa and Filipino fiesta crafts organized for Chinese pre-schoolers. Capping the festival was a cultural presentation by members of the Filipino community in Chongqing which culminated in the lively audience participation in the tinikling. Over 2,500 complimentary samples of Philippine fruits and fruit products were served to the public during the festival. By and large, the Consulate’s guests were enthused by their first Filipino fiesta experience.
The Philippine Fruit Festival was made possible with the cooperation of the Philippine Agricultural Counselor's Office in Beijing, the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Shanghai, the Philippine Department of Tourism in Shanghai, Chongqing E-Cars, Chongqing Meng Ai Education Technology Company, and SM City Chongqing. Distributors of Philippine food and beverage brands also lent their support by sending product samples namely Excellent Quality Goods and Supply Company (Pong Pong Banana Chips); Century Pacific Agricultural Ventures (Aqua Coco Coconut Water); Century International China (Coco Mama Coconut Cream); Global Basic Co., Ltd. (Coconut-Flavored Tanduay Boracay Rum); Oishi Shanghaojia (mango and other fruit juices and snacks); and DOLE (fresh bananas, pineapples, and papaya). END