Frutas de Chile president Iván Marambio leads visit to La Moneda Palace for talks on labour, plant health, and trade access
National association Frutas de Chile has asked the country’s President, Gabriel Boric, to make it easier for workers to enter the country from neighbouring Bolivia.
In a meeting with Boric at the La Moneda Palace, the association’s own president Iván Marambio and general manager Miguel Canala-Echeverría underlined the importance of Chile’s fast-growing fruit industry, which they said could achieve export sales of US$6bn this year.
“Considering that fruit growing is an important economic pillar for the country, which generates approximately 600 thousand jobs, and which has the goal of reaching US$10bn in returns for the country by 2030, we ask the President to reinforce and expedite regular and temporary migration for foreign workers, through the Mercosur Visa,” said Marambio.
The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto van Klaveren, the Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, and the director of national agriculture agency SAG, José Guajardo.
Frutas de Chile’s representatives made various other requests aimed at improving collaboration with government agencies. These included a strengthening of SAG’s role in monitoring phytosanitary and plant protection arrangements.
Boric is understood to have committed to increasing border control checks that the group said would bar illegal fruit from entering the country.
“We appreciate the President’s willingness to make this commitment,” Marambio stated. “It is urgent to strengthen the powers of the SAG to address smuggling, replicating successful models in other critical regions.”
The Frutas de Chile contingent also reportedly emphasised the need to develop deeper trade connections and market access with countries such as China, India, South Korea, parts of North Africa.
