Chile aiming to obtain better kiwis

Efficiency would be the key to tackle a world market characterised by great supply of kiwis and stagnation in consumption, as well as the answer to a national market suffering unfavourable exchange rates, large harvest volumes and high production costs.

During the International Kiwi Seminar 2012, organised by ASOEX along with Chile's Kiwi Committee, and attended by more than 300 people each day, the national kiwi industry determined as one of their challenges to supply high quality kiwis from March to October and become the consumers' choice in every market, as this would be the only strategy to tackle an international market with great production volumes from many sources, including Chile, and stagnation in consumption.

"The industry is going through a time of low profitability. If we compare it to the situation 5 years ago, when we had much better exchange rates, lower volumes and a greater ability to reach the different markets with better prices, now we have much bigger volumes putting pressure on the markets, a bad exchange rate and very high production costs. Labourers' wages account for 50% of the costs, leaving us with efficiency as the only possible strategy," said Carlos Cruzat, General Manager of the Kiwi Committee.

Source: www.simfruit.cl