A group of 15 Chilean companies recently attended a seminar in Chinese port city Guangzhou to discuss fruit trade opportunities between the two countries and further afield in South East Asia.

The Chilean-Chinese Fruit Seminar had a strong focus on apples, cherries, kiwifruit, plums and blueberries, and was organized by ProChile and the Chilean Association of Exporters (Asoex).

The networking event and seminar involved a visit to the Guangzhou Jiangang Fruit & Vegetable Market.

"Today for the first time we are strongly promoting blueberry exports, after starting this year with authorization for direct entry of this Chilean fruit into China," said Asoex marketing manager for Europe and Asia Christian Carvajal.

The seminar included Chinese companies such as Lantao and Lotus, who spoke with Chilean exporters about their concerns and queries for an hour.

"We've done business with Chile for around four years, in fact we have our own manager in Santiago which makes us very close. As a company with premium fruit year after year, Lantao is looking to improve the quality of the fruit it imports from Chile," Lantao CEO John Wang told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"We currently have around 37 suppliers in Chile, who we expect to continue working with," he added.

ProChile Guangzhou director Nicolás Serrano said he was satisfied with the spirit and professionalism of the seminar participants.

"We are confident in the good relations that the fruit industry has maintained and that it will continue to build with Jiangang market distributors, thanks to these types of initiatives that we have organized with Asoex," he said.

Chile recently had 70 exporters representing at Asia Fruit Logistica in Hong Kong, with a stand totaling 115 sqm.

Opportunities in Indonesia

"After observing the results so far we are looking ahead to the future with an optimistic perspective. For this reason, we are also working on the prospect of South East Asian markets," said Carvajal.

"We have an eye on Indonesia, as it is a country that is very similar to what a Mediterranean country like Italy consumes for example. The other important factor that makes Indonesia an important place is that Islam is practiced, where the diet is largely based on fruit and vegetables.

"We will go (there) with around 15 companies and will have a very similar seminar to what we did in Guangzhou, so that the producer-exporter has an absolutely global vision of the market's fruit distribution chain."

Website Tempointeractive.com reported Chile exports around 0.8% of its fruit to Indonesia with 'promising' export potential, particularly in grapes which grew 126% year-on-year in 2011.

Chile's total fruit exports to Indonesia more than tripled this year to 9,100 metric tons (MT).

Related story: China snapshot: Chile's growing fruit trade with the Asian giant

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