Chilean Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker has announced the creation of a national fruit board to help the industry prepare to face future challenges.

The board will be coordinated by the Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies (ODEPA) will include professionals from across the sector.

The announcement was made during the Fruit Industry Technology Summit, which was focused on the challenges of validating new fruit varieties in Chile.

"ODEPA, by decree, has various national boards which are consultants for the Ministry of Agriculture," said Walker.

"We have a board for meat, milk, grains, bees .. and we did not have one for fruit. So now we are going to create one.

"The idea is to  all of the associations together with the ministry, and through ODEPA what we want to gather are the industry players' opinions to inform the ministry about what is happening - to see what are the problems and the challenges that are coming."

The new board's inaugural session will take place on Sept. 26, the Ministry said.

The Fruit Exporters' Association (ASOEX) and the Chilean Fruit Producer's Federations (Fedefruta) are expected to participate in the first session.