Copiapó grapes 15

Rising production costs, old vines and labour shortages have hit the competitiveness of Chile’s table grape industry according to producer organisation Fedefruta, which this week welcomed the recent launch of the Chilean Table Grape Research and Development Commission, Uvanova, to turn the industry around.

Together with apples, table grapes are Chile’s biggest fruit export and but the sector’s profitability has been seriously eroded by rising energy and labour costs, the exchange rate and falling production from ageing vines. Fedefruta estimates that the industry’s competitiveness has dropped by 30 per cent over the last decade.

“The figures speak for themselves,” said renowned industry adviser Carolina Cruz, who forms part of the new commission. “Between 1998 and 2003 export volumes rose by 44 per cent, while between 2003 and 2008 the increase was 18 per cent. And during the past five-year period they have risen by just 2 per cent, in fact they fell slightly in the 2013/14 season due to the freeze.”

Cruz said a large part of Chile’s 53,000ha of grape production were aged vines whose productivity had fallen sharply. She said urgent structural changed needed to be made if the industry wished to maintain its position as the world’s leading exporter.

Uvanova is tasked with regenerating Chile’s table grape production base through research and development. Cruz explained that the commission would “develop strategies to reduce labour costs; increase the gene pool for the development of new varieties and rootstock; identify new postharvest technologies and processes and uphold sustainability and food safety standards.

“Each and every producer has a hugely important role to play in addressing the challenges facing the different production zones,” she noted.

Juan Carolus Brown, president of Fedefruta, said the organisation was confident that along with the measures taken by Fedefruta to improve access to the financing required to renew old vines and improve phytosanitary controls, the new committee would help reverse the industry’s fortunes.