The president of Chile’s fruit producer federation Fedefruta has called on growers to seize on the opportunity created by the current exchange rate to raise productivity or risk seeing further erosion to the industry’s competitiveness.
Juan Carolus Brown said the sector should take advantage of strong US dollar – which in recent days has topped CLP600 – to increase levels of investment in research and development, varietal reconversion and the modernisation of farms.
“It is already a well known fact that Chile’s table grape industry has lost 30 per cent of its competitiveness in the past decade due to increased production costs, the labour shortage and, most importantly, the advanced age of many of the vines whose quality and output has dropped off as a result,” he noted.
“The same thing is now starting to happen with other fruits such as apples, which require wide-scale replanting with newer, more productive varieties which are not only attractive to consumers but profitable for growers.”
The loss of competitiveness was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the new table grape commission Uvanova, which has been charged with developing strategies to reduce the cost of labour and inputs; increase the varietal genetic pool; identify new technologies and oversee food safety.
“It is also vital for the public and private sectors to work together to confront the various pests and diseases affecting production – including Lobesia botrana in grapes, Psa in kiwifruit, monilinia fruticola in stonefruit – that threaten the reputation of Chilean exports, and to open new markets for our fruit,” Brown continued.
Brown pointed out that growers would not see the benefits of the exchange rate until the end of the coming season – and only then if the current level was maintained.
“We don’t want to miss this opportunity and sincerely hope that the advantages of the current situation are not cancelled out by further increases in labour and input costs,” he said.
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