Long-term promotion could see imports of prunes to India rise to 12,000 tonnes
Senior executives from leading Indian dried fruit and nut import companies enjoyed a recent visit to Chile to discuss the possibility of a future working relationship with local prune producers and exporters.
The delegates, Gunjan Vijay Jain, director of VKC Nuts; Pratik Dattani, managing partner of Regency Global Ingredient; and Rajeev Pabreja, managing director of Commodity Trading Corporation met with representatives of Prunesco and Frutexsa plants accompanied by Sumit Saran, director of SS Associates, an international consulting firm that supports Chileprunes in India.
Following the visit, which was organised by Chileprunes, Jain emphasised the importance of “playing on the same side of the court” to better reach consumers and noted that promotion plans should take a long-term approach in the vicinity of five to seven years.
Sebastián Plaza, sales and product manager at Frutexsa, said the interest in a long-term working relationship was a positive sign of good will from India.
“They understand what the market is like, they know it’s going to take time,” he said.
“I was left with the best impressions and good will from customers to grow this category of prunes. It is a market that can reach 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes in a short time, in six to seven years.”
Plaza said the potential export volumes would be significant as Chile currently only exports 70,000 tonnes of prunes in total.
He added that the visit was a valuable investment from Chileprunes to bring in importers to see the product as well as the first-class processing plants.
Marcelo Lacunza, commercial manager of Prunesco also agreed with the long-term approach considering how unknown prunes currently are in the Indian market.
“I think the results of this meeting are going to be very good,” he said. “India is a very attractive country due to the size, and the consumption of prunes is very low, so it has been a very good decision to bring them to Chile, invest in this, show them what the Chilean industry is and the technology we have.”
Lacunza said Chile has a stable production of prunes and can ensure a consistent volume year-on-year to satisfy the needs of a market like India. He’s also confident in the premium position of Chilean products within India.
“[India] sees the Chilean origin as a premium, top-of-the-line origin due to the campaigns that Chile has previously carried out in those markets,” he said.
