Representatives of Chile's ports have hit back at criticism levelled earlier this month by fruit exporters insisting that they are cost competitive.
According to reports in the Chilean national press, Chilean Fresh Fruit Association president Ronald Bown claimed costs incurred at Chilean ports were up to three times those in competitor countries such as South Africa and New Zealand and were causing Chile's fruit exporters to lose their competitive edge.
But armed with a different set of statistics, Chile's Maritime Port Chamber argued that embarking containers at the port of Valparaíso was cheaper than ports in the US, Australia, northern Europe, Africa and Australia.
However the chamber did concur with exporters' concerns that union pressures could reduce some of Chile's advantage on international markets in the medium term. Sporadic strike action is threatening the reliability, flexibility and efficiency of the country's ports and contributing to costs, the chamber reportedly concluded.
Bown was reported criticising government inactivity on dockers' contract issues which are at the heart of the strike action. He told national daily El Mercurio that strikes over the season have cost the sector $500,000 as perishable products have been wasted and some shipments have bunched up and arrived in destinations all at once pushing prices down.
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