The Chilean fresh fruit industry has revealed it plans to bring a 110-strong delegation to Fruit Logistica on 9-11 February, including around 80 exporter representatives and the heads of the country’s four leading fruit committees.
The three-day trade fair will see Asoex reinforcing its key messages to the European market, particularly the need to diversify its European market presence, Christian Carvajal, marketing manager for Europe and Asia at the Chilean Fresh Fruit Exporters Association (Asoex), said in a press release.
“Our objective is to facilitate as many one-to-one meetings between Chilean exporters and new or potential customers in Europe as we can,” Mr Carvajal explained.
“Our presence at the event is being promoted by ourselves and also by the local ProChile offices around Europe and this is a great opportunity for European customers to make new contacts and find out what Chile’s fresh fruit industry can offer them.”
Mr Carvajal said Chile’s focus in Europe has changed in the last few seasons, as the core western European markets have matured.
“While we are committed to maintaining our investment in those markets to support the huge volume of fruit our exporters sell there, our industry has been focusing on central and eastern Europe with a view to expanding existing markets and opening up new avenues for Chilean fruit exports,” he commented.
With that in mind, a Ukrainian trade mission recently visited Chile, including five potential buyers who represented nearly 60 per cent of the fruit imports into their market.
“There as a tremendous level of interest from our exporters,” Mr Carvajal noted. “The buyers had an average of 17 meetings with exporters, which is as high as we’ve seen for similar prospective trade missions in the past.
“There is a real recognition now that Chilean exporters need to be looking further a-field than the markets into which they send fruit directly; to open up and diversify.
The 240m2 Chilean pavilion at Fruit Logistica will be located in Hall 25-Stand B06 and as usual will provide visitors with the opportunity to meet people from all sectors of the fresh fruit industry in Chile, as well as representatives of trade bodies and organisations that support the industry’s activities in Europe.
The 110-strong delegation from Chile will be headed by Asoex chairman Ronald Bown, and will comprise the general managers of the citrus, kiwifruit, avocado and blueberry committees, which combined represent between 80-90 per cent of the export volume for their respective fruits.
It will also be the first visit to Fruit Logistica for Carlos Cruzat, who has recently taken the general manager’s position of the Chilean Kiwifruit Committee.
Prior to his new position, Mr Curzat spent spells as general manager at export groups Subsole and Safex, and has joined Asoex after a period working as a consultant for the Chilean fresh fruit industry.
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