The United States is a key market for the Chilean table grape industry, accounting for nearly 50% of its exports. This is demonstrated by 2023 export figures, a year in which total shipments reached $905 million, with the North American market accounting for $431 million.

The Chilean industry has already begun preparations for the start of the season, implementing the Systems Approach. The newly approved protocol benefits the fruit produced in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions and part of the Valparaíso region.

This protocol replaces methyl bromide fumigation with mitigation measures at the origin, promoting optimal fruit quality and condition, and strengthening competitiveness against other Southern Hemisphere suppliers in the U.S. market.

In this context, the Chilean fruit guild Frutas de Chile held a webinar on the implementation of the Systems Approach. The general manager of the institution, Miguel Canala-Echeverria, was in charge of starting the presentation and indicated that it is a very important issue for the sector, but he was clear in saying that it is not ideal, since it left some areas out of the system.

“This is a pending work and we are very aware that we will have to look for a mechanism to address this issue,” he said.

He added that the responsibility of the industry to do things well is crucial, "because the success of this system depends on our work being done well, and consequently, we can move forward in expanding this system to other zones or finding mechanisms that allow us to move towards orchard release."

The executive explained that they have been working for quite some time to be able to have the facilities required by the system. 

“Here there are two facilities that will be made available to the sector, in the Copiapó area, which we hope will be operational as of November 15, and another facility in the Coquimbo area, which is already operational and ready to receive grapes,” Canala-Echeverria added.

Step by step

Eric León, a member of the phytosanitary regulation and certification department of the Chilean Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG), was in charge of explaining the step-by-step of the measure so that growers can export grapes to the United States.

He explained that the protocol provides producers with an alternative to export to the U.S. market, as before July 19, the only option was to export using methyl bromide fumigation.

“The farms must be located in Lobesia-free areas and producers must register their farms with SAG, in the agricultural registration system and obtain a CCG code,” he said.

He added that producers have to register the sub-units within the farm called production sites. The registration must be done in the SDP producer registration system, which is available on the SAG website.

He emphasized that the farms must follow the guidelines of the National Lobesia botrana Program and cannot use mating disruption as a control method.

Producers must consider that, in the event that an outbreak is established, a regulated area of 3 kilometers will be defined and all farms that are within that distance will be outside of the Systems Approach protocol, even though they can continue to export their fruit to the United States using the fumigation option, which can be in Chile, at destination or using irradiation.

León said that they have surveyed the sites that could participate in the Systems Approach from Atacama to Valparaíso “and we have approximately 222 farms that can participate in the Atacama region; we are talking about almost 13,865 acres. In the Coquimbo region we have 717 properties, around 15,182 acres, and in the Valparaíso region only 35, with a surface area of approximately 1,588 acres”.

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León commented that the first measure of the Systems Approach was the installation of traps, which were installed by SAG in August, before the beginning of the first flight.

“The traps must be installed every 25 acres, the frequency of revision of the traps is every 10 days and the changes of pheromones of the traps, must be done every 40 to 50 days,” he said.

Another measure established by the Systems Approach is that the farms that want to opt for this option have to carry out a visual prospection, where the producer has to hire an authorized laboratory.

“The prospecting is done about 15 days before the harvest and the producer and the laboratory must coordinate,” he said.

He commented that once the prospecting is done, SAG and APHIS must be informed, so that they can supervise the activity.

“The laboratory, once it goes to the farm, has to perform a visual analysis of 300 bunches, for which it has to select 150 plants from the farm. Once the survey is done, we publish a list of the farms that comply with the survey for Lobesia”.

He added that the production site only has one chance to apply for the Systems Approach during the season, “therefore, if it fails, it will only be eligible for the Systems Approach once the season is over and will have to apply the following season”.

In addition, he said that “the first step of the Systems Approach is trapping, the second is prospecting and the third is sampling and analysis also carried out by laboratories authorized by SAG, to determine that there is no presence of the pest in the production sites.

“The producer, prior to harvest, contacts the authorized laboratory to coordinate a pre-harvest date, which should be between 1 and 30 days before harvest. The laboratory performs a sampling where they are going to have to take 100 bunches from the production site, for which they are going to select 25 plants and from each plant they take four bunches.”

The sample is placed in airtight containers, which are then taken to a laboratory where the drag washing technique is applied

“In case of non-detection of the analysis, the production site can be certified as low prevalence of the pest. By complying with these three measures, we will be able to harvest the fruit and allow it to participate in the Systems Approach,” he concluded