The Chilean based company Southern Fruit, is opening new terrain this season by hiring a new executive director and acquiring a new processing center in its effort to strengthen its international presence.

As the new executive director, Arturo Costabal, the former marketing director at export company Prize, will be responsible for leading the delivery of professional export service to growers and reaching a level that allows them to respond to the demands of the main export markets.

As part of the strategy to increase production volume, Southern fruit acquired a new center in Region VI, in the south central part of Chile. The company also updated its packing equipment in the recently acquired plant in Calera de Tango, near Santiago.

The Chilean company exported 1.7 million cartons in 2010 and hopes with the new investments, its capacity will reach 4 million.

The addition of Costabal came after Prize and Southern Fruit started talking about the prospect of exploring a merger. In the end, that didn’t happen, but both companies achieved a stronger cooperative relationship.

Costabal comes with a wealth of experience in fruit exports. He is an agricultural engineer and was commercial director for exporter Unifrutti Traders for 22 years. He was also director of ASOEX, the Chilean exporters association, and director of the Foundation for Fruit Development.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com