Novel Philippine Fruit Festival in Chongqing Impresses Local Consumers

Chongqing- On 18 December 2021, The Philippine Consulate General in Chongqing staged 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, intending to help boost domestic demand for these goods.    

The Consulate team entered 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, which helped boost trade relations between Chongqing and the Philippines, which amounted to RMB 7 billion (about PHP 55 billion) from 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. 

The Consul General personally guided guests 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, 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, and Filipino fiesta crafts organized for Chinese preschoolers.

Capping the festival was a cultural presentation by members of the Filipino community in Chongqing. 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.