The year 2015 was an historic one for U.S. apple growers. China agreed to accept all varieties of America's apples, while U.S. officials moved toward accepting China's apples in return. However, the opening of apple trade between the two countries was not viewed as much of a threat by most of America's growers who were confident that the United States would sell more than it purchases. U.S. growers noted that Chinese apples have not sold heavily in Canada and Europe, which is a good indicator they will not be major competition in the United States.
China produces about 1.9 billion 40-pound boxes of apples annually, amounting to about half of the world's consumption. American apple growers rank second, producing about 249 million boxes per year. Much of that production, about 60-70 percent, comes from the central part of Washington state.
Comparing American and Chinese apples, the United States produces dozens of varieties, such as Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, while China has mainly Fujis. Also, the United States has a competitive advantage in technology and infrastructure, such as high-volume packing lines with computers, light spectrometers, and near-infrared cameras that scan and sort apples. Asian importing companies expect flawless apples, and America's packing houses have met that challenge.
However, China's apples are often associated with the stigma of low quality and poor safety, due to rot and pests. Also, China's growing costs have increased, and export prices to foreign markets have followed suit. Simply put, China's Fujis are rather expensive: Chinese consumers pay more for their Fujis than U.S. consumers pay for American Fujis.

China first asked the United States to open its ports to Chinese apples in the 1990s. But U.S. health officials were concerned about diseases and pests that could come with the imports. By 2015, they concluded that China had addressed those threats, and thus the apple trade agreement occurred.
However, not all-American growers agreed with the U.S. government's policy of opening its ports to China's apples. They did not trust China's food safety regulations or the U.S. government's import inspections, fearing that apples tainted with arsenic would slip through the cracks and onto America's store shelves. They also feared that China might play politics with food safety and plant health; they could conveniently find a bug, and by the time it was resolved, it could take several years to address to the disadvantage of America's growers. This occurred in 2012 when China's government suspended imports of Red and Golden Delicious apples from the U.S. state of Washington on the grounds that these apples posed pest and disease threats to China's growers. But Washington growers suspected that the real reason the market closed was to put pressure on the U.S. government to reach an apple trade agreement with China, which came about in 2015.

What do you think? Did American apple growers view imported apples from China to be a threat to their livelihood?