In recent years, Onizzo, a company associated with Chileprunes, has established itself as one of Chile's main exporters of dried fruits and nuts.
They ship dehydrated plums, walnuts and garlic to more than 30 countries. As regards the former, this year they expect to export 3,000 tons from some 30 suppliers, who are growing the product in 400 hectares located in the Metropolitan Region and the VI Region.
In any case, Onizzo and the producers are also interested in adding fresh plums to their export portfolio, says Agustín Marín, Onizzo's general manager. The motivation for this is the growing interest in the fruit in the Chinese market. The goal next season is to reach 600,000-700,000 kilos of fresh plums.
"The fresh plum business has been good, with significant returns over the last two years, and although there have also been bad years, things have clearly tended to get better and better," he says. "Significant efforts are needed, because this is a different business, with different distribution channels, formats, types of packaging... It has little in common with that of dried plums, but we have no doubt about the need to participate."
International markets and consumers
"China is taking the dried equivalent of 20,000 tons of fresh fruit, and to this you can probably add about 18,000 of natural condition dried plums, which brings the total to about 40,000 tons. No single destination in the world has taken this amount of fruit in one year; not now, not before. For comparison, in the past, Mexico was taking 9,000 tons; Russia, 10,000, and Europe as a whole, 30,000 metric tons."
"Another significant change in the industry could be sparked within the next 7 years by the entry into production in China of some 50,000 hectares of plum trees of a variety similar to the D'Agen (Chile has 13,000 hectares). Although the focus is on fresh plums, the possibility of having 20 to 30% of the total volume dehydrated hasn't been ruled out, so we are talking about a significant volume."
"In China, the fresh plum harvest takes place in the off-season (July, August), so Chile shouldn't be affected by competition from this product. In fact, it would benefit from the promotional and marketing initiatives carried out by Chinese marketers for their plums, covering the January-February window and ensuring continuity in the supply of fresh plums in the Chinese market."
"Moreover, significant steps are being taken to pursue the consolidation of our dehydrated plums in the Indian market. In the short to medium term, India will become a major player for our exports."
For more information:
Onizzo
https://onizzo.com