Chilean producer federation Fedefruta met with the Minister of Agriculture Carlos Furche this week to discuss ways of advancing the agenda for the fruit industry agreed at an earlier meeting in February.
Fedefruta’s president, Juan Carolus Brown, and manager, Juan Carlos Sepúlveda, started off by welcoming the minister’s support for a public-private initiative to contain and eradicate European Grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, which they said was one of the most important challenges facing the industry today.
Fedefruta also paved the way for negotiations on the reform of the country’s agricultural labour laws, scheduled to take place in the second half of 2014, while also reiterating calls for a new law to guarantee the free transit of perishable goods during periods of industrial action in a bid to avoid a repeat of the severe disruption to fruit exports caused by port strikes in the last two years.
Furche, meanwhile, discussed plans for a new institutional framework for legislation on the use of water in agriculture, which are due to be formally announced next week.
“The country is making a lot of important decisions today that will have repercussions for the fruit industry and the people it employs,” said Brown. “That is why it is crucial for us to work closely with the authorities, valuing what has been achieved together so far and ensuring that we maintain an open dialogue.”
Also present at the meeting was Rodrigo Cruzat, manager of the Biofrutales consortium of which Fedefruta is a member. He highlighted the importance of strengthening the country’s varietal offer through research into genetics, pointing to recent successes such as the IniaGrape-one black table grape variety that is now being grown commercially by producers.
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