Work has begun on a new phytosanitary inspection facility in Cabrero in south central Chile that will result in significant time and cost savings for fruit exporters supplying the US. At present the closest facility is in Teno in the Maule region, more than 200km away from the main production zones.
Due to open in 2016, the US$2.8m plant inspection site is a public-private project funded by the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), USDA-APHIS and ASOEX.
An inauguration ceremony was held last week to mark the start of construction work. It was attended by the governor of the Region of Biobio, Rodrigo Diaz; mayor Mario Gierke; SAG’s national directors Angel Sartori and Claudia Silva; ASOEX president Ronald Bown and the USDA’s South American director Anwar Rizvi.
“This represents a tremendous step forward for the industry,” said Sartori. “The facility will handle shipments of blueberries, pears and apples. Last season around 1.5m cartons of fruit were shipped from this region and we expect this to increase to about 5m in the future.”
