Chile is the leading exporter of dehydrated plums in the world. In 2017, it shipped 76,515 tons of this product, i.e. 9.1% more than in the previous period, for US $175 million.
Meanwhile, the amount of dehydrated plums that remain in Chile for domestic consumption is low, slightly higher than 1% of the production, but there’s been a very significant upward trend in consumption.
“In the last 15 to 20 years, we saw that the Chilean public was educated in the consumption of nuts, but that they didn’t have a big preference for plums. In recent years, however, and not taking into account the product discarded, and maybe because of the global trend for healthier products, the country already consumes 800 to 1,000 tons of plums," said Andres Rodriguez, the executive director of Chile Prunes.
“Now you can see that there are more and more nuts and dried fruits in the supermarket shelves in general. You can also find different presentations and packagings of dehydrated plums, such as school snacks for children, something that you wouldn’t find some years ago," he said.
This goes hand in hand with the cultural change in which healthy products are valued more and more, he added.
Various actors
Pedro Pablo Diaz, the general manager of Sofruco and president of Chile Prunes, said that, apart form the increase in retail, there has also been an increase in consumption through the companies that provide food services (Sodexo, Aramark, etc.), which offer plums as part of a diet healthy to institutions such as Junaeb. “The dehydrated plum has a series of nutritional conditions that make it a superfood; Therefore, athletes, mothers who want their children to eat well, or senior executives who do not have time to have lunch, resort to it."
The executive also said that the challenges that the industry in Chile faces are mainly related to packaging, promotion, and research. “We do a lot of promotion in the retail point of sale. In health research, we are very committed to the work that is being done in California and we hope that, in the near future, the product has a packaging label that incorporates the benefits of this research," he said.
Federico Montes, the general manager of Prunesco, said that the industry must increase the internal promotion, publicizing the fruit’s advantages, and focus on the national market.