Chilean fruit and vegetable producers are looking to promote their technological and innovative advances.
Representatives of the Chilean fresh produce sector are in the UK and Europe talking to importers and retailers in a bid to boost awareness of their countries advanced industry.
Christian Carvajal, the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association's marketing manager for Europe, said a recent market research survey had revealed a perception amongst the UK and European markets that Chile was not innovating.
As well as the countries development of the ChileGAP programme, a certification system which has now been recognised by EurepGAP as a fully equivalent GAP programme, agronomist Ricardo Adonis, from the Foundation for Fruit Development, said the industry had a large number of projects under development.
"We're working on a number of projects at the moment, one of which is aimed at reducing the need for chemicals to open up new markets for our growers," Adonis said.
"We've also launched an interactive CD which helps growers to identify and deal with a wide range of insect pests."
He said the CD acted as a high-tech encyclopaedia or dictionary that tells growers exactly what pest is likely to be attacking their crop at a specific time of year and how to deal with it.
The country is also working on breeding programmes on a wide range of produce to boost yields and quality of produce. He said the country had the largest database of genetic information on peaches, and was working on building resources for other products.
"We're looking to develop citrus trees which are better suited to growing in salty soils," he said.
Adonis and Carvajal have been touring the UK to discuss both the advances with ChileGAP and the countries strides forward in innovation, visiting Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Chingford Fruit.
Carvajal said: "The market research showed that in terms of meeting the market requirements, Chilean produce was ranked above our main competitors and was perceived as a good source.
"But when it came to innovation we didn't do so well. Development has been going on, but we haven't been very good at communicating it."
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