Chile’s growers are concerned that rationalisation in the carton supply base will lead to higher costs. Chilean manufacturer CMPC is possibly putting its fresh-produce carton subsidiary Envases Impresos up for sale to multi-national International Paper.
Cristián Allendes, president of fruit-growers’ federation Fedefruta said: “We are very worried that International Paper will become a controlling player without competition in Chile.”
Envases Impresos provides “a large percentage” of the cartons producers pack their fruit in and International Paper would have a 65 per cent share of the production and sales of all cartons in the South American country if a deal went through.
Allendes said: “What worries us is that groups could be formed that end up with a large percentage of the business in any one industry leading to a type of monopoly.” The fruit sector in Chile buys some $350 million worth of cartons and paper products, according to Fedefruta.
Allendes is now calling for a meeting with the authorities to look at the possible sale. “We want to represent producers in that conversation with the authorities so that they take a look and se if there is any difficulty with the acquisition. This could not only cause problems for the fruit sector, but others such as wine and food.”