The Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker, has announced (within the framework of the Technological Summit of Fruit Growing, The Challenges in the Validation of New Varieties for Chilean Fruit Growing, which was organized by Corfo), the creation of a national fruit table that will be coordinated by the Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies (ODEPA), in which all the national actors of the fresh fruit industry are expected to participate.
The activity was also attended by the Executive Vice President of Corfo, Sebastián Sichel, the President of the Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile AG (ASOEX), Ronald Bown, the President of Fedefruta, Jorge Valenzuela, as well as researchers from the Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), fruit varieties experts from different universities, and representatives of the Fruit Technology Consortium, and Biofrutales.
In conversation with SimFRUIT, Minister Walker indicated: "ODEPA, by decree, has national tables that are advisory entities of the Ministry of Agriculture. We have a meat table, milk, grains, beekeeping tables... but we did not have a fresh fruit table. So now, we'll create one. The first meeting of this table will take place on September 26. All the unions, the Ministry, and ODEPA will participate in it, but the latter, which is making the call, will decide what issues will be addressed and conduct a follow up on this work."
"This table will be an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, and its objective is to gather the opinion of the industry players so that the ministry knows what is happening in the industry, so that we know what the problems and challenges are, and see what alliances we can carry out to contribute to this sector's development," he said.
Antonio Walker said he expected all organizations linked to the national fruit sector, such as the Fruit Exporters Association of Chile AG (ASOEX) and Fedefruta, among others, would participate in the meeting on September 26.
Source: SimFRUIT