Chilean plans for blueberry exports to China move a step closer

Chile is going through the final approval stages of protocols allowing it to export to China with the arrival later this month of two inspectors from the superpower.

Chile Blueberry Committee manager Andrés Armstrong, told www.freshfruitportal.com they were waiting for an exact date to be confirmed and explained the inspectors would be checking that the first fruit shipments complied with China’s requirements.The inspections by China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIC) fulfill the final part of the protocol signed last June, after three years of negotiations.

Following the visit, Chilean exporters will have the go-ahead to start exporting directly to China.

China’s 1,400 million inhabitants have an increasingly greater purchasing power making it an attractive market.

The Chilean Blueberry Committee said exporting to the country was one of its major objectives in a bid to diversify.

Blueberry consumption has risen over the last few years following greater awareness of the fruit’s high anti-oxidant levels.

The U.S. is Chile’s largest export destination with 69,600 metric tons (MT) shipped in 2010-11.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com

International Special Editions from FreshFruitPortal.com

Two International Special Editions are available from FreshFruitPortal.com covering Fresh Atacama and Blueberries from Chile.

The International Special Edition is a joint effort between industry news websites Freshfruitportal.com and Portalfruticola.com.

Fresh Atacama	Blueberries from Chile
October 2011	October 2011
Digital Version	Digital Version
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Nanotechnology changing the face of Chilean horticulture

Around the world nanotechnology is taking off across a broad spectrum of industries and is changing the way we bring food from the farm to table. For horticultural products, the practice of manipulating material at an atomic level can replace chemical usage in cleaning. Agronomist Alberto Popper tells www.freshfruitportal.com about what makes nanotechnology tick and how it is implemented.

Popper, an agronomist with vast experience in the produce industry in Chile and abroad, has formed a portfolio of technological solutions for agribusiness under the umbrella of company Bello Sur S.A.

Popper has partnered up with C-TEC Ltd, which is the first Chilean company dedicated to developing nanotechnology products and solutions, formed by Fabián and Marcos Orellana in 2007. The pair had previously worked for American and Japanese companies involved in the platform, while their creation C-TEC is also engaged in consultancy based on good manufacturing practices for nanotechnology.

The joint partnership between C-TEC and Bello Sur offers the product TI-CLEAN, which provides an unseen nanocoating made up of active polymers that cover the surfaces of any product that needs cleaning, but doesn’t change its physical properties.

Read full article at FreshFruitPortal.com

VIII International Congress on Hazelnut (Chile, 2012)

March 19-22, 2012, Temuco City (Chile): VIII International Congress on Hazelnut. Info: Dr. Pablo Grau Beretta, INIA, Avda. Vicente Mendez 515, Chillan, Chile. Phone: (56)42 209707, Fax: (56)42 209720, E-mail: pgrau@inia.cl or Miguel Ellena Dellinguer, INIA, Instituto De Investigaciones Agropeciarias, Km 10, Camino Cajon Vilcun, Temuco, Chile. Phone: (56)45 215 706, Fax: (56)45 216 112, E-mail: fellena@inia.cl E-mail symposium: mdiaz@inia.cl

Web: http://www.hazelnut2012.cl/

FRUITTRADE Chile 2009

The largest offering of fruits and vegetables in the Southern Hemisphere directly from the growers

On Sept.ember 23 and 24, the 7th edition of the “International Business Round Table; Chilean Fruit and Vegetables for Export” or FRUITTRADE will take place. It is an event organized by the National Fruit Growers Federation of Chile (FEDEFRUTA) with the support of the Chilean Export Promotion Bureau (ProChile) that reports to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

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AU: Blueberry growers worried about threat from Chile

Blueberry growers in Australia say they're worried what Chilean imports of the fruit will do to the domestic market.

A free trade agreement between Australia and Chile came into effect in March.The secretary of the Australian Blueberry Growers Association, Ridley Bell, says the Australian industry can't compete, because we have the highest rates of pay for blueberries in the world.

"It'll impact on our growers because we can't compete with their labour rates," he says.

"Our labour rates are several times higher than the Chilean day rates."When you look at a crop like blueberries, it's very very labour intensive.

"It's all hand harvested, hand packed, all pruning, everything's labour".

Source: abc.net.au