Sicily's famed 'tarocchi' oranges have finally made it to Japan, crowning long and complicated negotiations by the Italian embassy here aimed at penetrating the Japanese market for Italian products.
A first shipment arrived at the port city of Yokohama on Friday and the oranges are slated to be distributed through the Isetan supermarket chain, Japan's largest. The final green light to import the oranges, famous for their blood-red pulp, came early last month after Japanese health inspectors visited Sicily to make sure the oranges were totally free of the dreaded Mediterranean fruit fly, a key condition set by Tokyo to allow the citrus products into the country.
Health inspectors were also in Yokohama to meet Friday's shipment but had no reason to intervene, except to praise the quality of the oranges. Until now, the Italian oranges were only available here in juice form.
Negotiations to open up Japanese market to Italian fruit and vegetables were headed by Rome's ambassador to Tokyo, Mario Bova.
The embassy's chief trade official, Mario Vattani, was on hand for Friday's arrival and said that opening up the Japanese market had been a great success for Italy and demonstrated that producing certifiable quality products was the best way to make headway on world markets.
