Frutconcept, based in Valdivia, Chile, came to London this month to showcase its colourful dried fruits, high concentrate juice and chocolate covered dried fruit produce in a bid for export into the UK. Part of Pro Chile's Flavours of Chile trade event at London Park Lane Hilton on April 19, the company were demonstrating and handing out samples to prove that dried fruit was a lot more exciting than the raisins and dates you may find in your muesli.
The business is a passion and dream of chief executive manager Sebastian Monckeberg, who told FPJ that: “We knew we could get a better way to dry fruit, so that all the natural aromas and colour stayed intact.” Frutconcept dry produce such as strawberries, cranberry, cherries, blueberries, raspberries and goldenberries in accordance to Good Manufacturing Practices from premium grade raw material from Patagonia. Monckeberg believes that there is a gap in the market for this different kind of product and targets the healthy eating snack market.
Already exporting to Austria and the USA, as well as supplying a growing domestic market in Chile, Frutconcept also produces a high concentrate fruit juice in both a cranberry and raspberry flavour. As with all of the company's products, the juices are 100 per cent natural with no added preservatives, colourings or flavours.
This is what, Monckeberg said, makes Frutconcept's products so different. Apart from being 100 per cent natural, the process preserves the fruit’s distinctively natural features as well as their particular functional properties, such as antioxidants and vitamins.
