The Association of Producers and Exporters of Nuts of Chile (ChileNut) will hold a Congress to close this year's season, an event that is expecting an attendance of more than 400 people.
The event will be held on Wednesday, November 7, at the Monticello Conference Center and its motto will be "Competing mano-a-mano." In it, the sector will review and "analyze the results of the 2018 season, the evolution of the external markets, the productive and commercial challenges, the need to work together as an industry for the commercial promotion of the Chilean nut and the deepening of markets in a year that has been complex," stated the president of ChileNut, Nicolas di Cosmo.
Remi Decottignies, the commercial manager of Valbifrut and one of the exhibitors at the event, said that sale prices constantly decreased in the 2018 season, which generated difficult commercial situations in a scenario affected by the trade war initiated by the United States where there were important stock levels, due to California's aggressive commercial policy.
To compete on an equal footing in international markets, Decottignies said, Chile must achieve producing a quality product at a very good price and having a more orderly offer. "We need a uniform and consistent quality. That's why we invite all exporters to join Chilenut and accept the quality standards that we have established for our export products."
One of the most outstanding international exhibitors is Kaushal Khanna, the Senior Vice President of Olam International, who will speak about the situation of the nut industry worldwide. Olam international has operations in more than 70 countries and it is one of the three main agroindustrial companies in the world.
Details of the program at http://chilenut.cl/clausura2018/
Industry figures
Nuts have been the most successful dried product in recent years and one of the most important products in Chile's food sector regarding the area devoted to this crop, which ranks second after table grape, and due to the amount of labor it employs.
Currently Chile has more than 43 thousand hectares planted with walnut trees and 48 thousand hectares with table grapes. Every year the area planted with walnut trees increases by 1,500 to 2,500 hectares.
According to Chilefruit, at the beginning of the year, they expected to achieve a record production of nearly 130 thousand tons of nuts and shipments that exceeded US $ 500 million. These amounts will be affected by the Indian issue - a surprising rate increase -, but the sector, which produced 72 thousand tons in 2016 and a little more than 100 thousand tons in 2017, will continue to show strong growth.