A study conducted by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences from the University of Chile revealed that some of the challenges that the Chilean horticultural industry will have to face if it wants to ensure its future competitiveness are the strengthening of traceability systems, ensuring the products' safety and diversifying the supply of processed goods.
The study, which was commissioned by the FIA, aimed at defining a framework of priority actions for the expansion and modernization of the horticultural industry's production and commercial activity.
Chile's horticultural sector is characterized by a great diversity of crops (mainly sweet corn, maize, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and pumpkin) and around one hundred thousand farmers who work in a nearly eighty thousand-hectare area.
"The horticultural sector, emphasizes the document, represents a critical point in the country's food production chain that, in turn, constitutes a great agribusiness potential, in terms of its ability to add value and expand into international markets."
Despite this, it has a number of limitations that has prevented it from having a greater dynamism. Among the most important limitations the study mentions the lack of a strong union presence that could channel the sectors needs and that promotes the union between farmers and safe quality production; the lack of control for the vegetables sent to open markets; and the poor development of processed products.
Other negative factors mentioned by the study are the informal nature of primary production, the limited application of high performance technologies, and that most of the production is being carried out by farmers who lack corporate culture and act as passive agents in the marketing of their products.
Source: FIA