Chile: Nut sector faces great commercial, production challenges

Despite the great challenges of the market and the competition, the Chilean nut producers and exporters, associated to Chilenut, expressed they had optimistic expectations during the sixth version of ExpoNut. The event, the most important one for the nut sector in the southern hemisphere, was held in CasaPiedra of Vitacura, where 470 industry stakeholders from Chile, South America and Europe, among other regions, gathered together. 

In the opening ceremony of the convention and exhibition, the President of Chilenut, Juan Luis Vial, stressed the unparalleled productivity that the Chilean nuts achieved in volume per hectare, the country's ability to greatly increase export volumes thanks to the work carried out by the public-private sectors for years, and the prices achieved due to the quality of the country’s supply and the overall increase in demand. The Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Furche, the director of ProChile, Roberto Paiva, and the director of PASO, Claudia Carbonell, accompanied by labor authorities from Chile and Europe, also attended and participated in the event.

"However, some external conditions in the economic and productive sphere have caused certain changes in global markets, so the projection for this season’s start is a little lower than what was desired," said Vial. "The large increases in California’s production, which has grown by 40-50% over the previous year, combined with the lower purchases from China in recent months, have triggered a huge inventory to be sold in the United States, which coincides with the moment in which Chile offers its highest volumes." 

The President of Chilenut also said that the rapid appreciation of the dollar against the euro could stop the consumption in the countries concerned and slow growth, but that "it will allow local producers and exporters to have a greater return in pesos, an issue that lessen the negative aspects." Juan Luis Vial stressed that the future work of market positioning would be much more important than the current ups and downs. 

In that regard, Chilenut said the goal will be to "focus on activities to consolidate and strengthen the industry in conjunction with the political authorities and institutions that support the country's development." Thus, Vidal made a call to expedite the entry clearance of shelled nuts to China. 

"This is of crucial importance for the sector and we hope that the Ministry of Agriculture makes every effort considering our proposals, so that in a short term Chile can export to China without restrictions", said Vial, adding that opening new markets was necessary in face of the country’s projected growth in exports of nuts and dried fruits. "The coordination work with the authorities will be intense as it is urgent to plan new trade agreements, modify some existing ones and sign the ones that have already been negotiated," said the union leader, in reference to Thailand and Vietnam, or the revision of the treaty with Turkey, the main market of nuts, to increase the share of nuts that can enter the country free of tariff, which currently stands at only 15%. 

Market diversification

The Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Furche, stressed the importance of the production of nuts, especially walnuts, almonds, hazelnut and others that are starting to be developed. "Currently, walnut exports amounts to $320 million dollars and by the end of this decade projections will surely be around $500 million dollars," he said. "If we consider all the dried fruits, exports will be over $700 million dollars."

He also noted that the Chilean fruit industry need to make a productive adjustment because of the drought affecting the country's agricultural sector, and that it was not a minor detail that nuts and dried fruit were more efficient than other crops in the use of water, a key figure for the time to come. He stressed that they had to take on the challenges outlined by the president of Chilenut, along with raising the standards of health, safety and quality with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, and deepen technological innovation from primary production to delivery destinations. Chile, he said, has a comparative advantage of being the only country outside the Mediterranean that has a Mediterranean climate and therefore can exclusively offer a Mediterranean diet at a certain part of the year. 

"Nut exports have increased tenfold with state support and today they are the country’s main selling fruits abroad", added Roberto Paiva from ProChile, the institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for promoting exportable supply in the country. Chile is the main provider of shelled nuts in Russia, Italy and Brazil, and second to Germany and South Korea, with 63% of the total destined for Europe. The Ministry of Agriculture added: "We must continue to deepen our presence in international markets, the euro may complicate things in the short term and that alone should raise awareness that we need to deepen trade liberalization and market diversification." 

In the convention, the representative of the International Nut & Dried Fruit (INC), Giuseppe Calcagni, valued the growth and job done by Chilean growers and exporters of nuts, noting that in production terms, volume per hectare and quality, "nobody in the world is doing as well as you."

In turn, Javier Uribe, general manager of Alnuez Dried Fruits & Nuts, estimated that by 2025, the nut producers in Chile would export 200,000 tons of this fruit. The head of INFOR, Veronica Loewe unveiled the potential to produce stone pines, known as white gold or diamond nuts, as a short-term alternative plantations of highly profitable winter crops, and high efficiency in water use. 

The speakers' presentations will be available at www.exponut.cl