The 7th Edition of the Postharvest Academy, organized by Sumitomo Chemical and its postharvest division Pace International, was held with great success at the Sun Monticello Events Center, this past Wednesday, October 4, 2023. This annual event brought together more than 300 people from the national agricultural industry, prominent academics and experts from different areas, marking an important milestone in addressing topics from production to fruit preservation in postharvest.
The Postharvest Academy is known in Chile and Latin America for being a space for learning and exchanging knowledge about the latest trends and technologies applied in the management of the main crops from harvest to their arrival to the final consumer. This year, the event stood out for the integration of the concepts of pre-harvest and post-harvest, recognizing and promoting the importance of comprehensive management of fresh fruit agricultural production.
During the day, crucial topics were addressed such as food safety, optimization of energy resources with a profitable and sustainable perspective, monitoring and control of pathogens under a new environmental scenario and the vision of field and packaging experts under the same production prism.
Speaking about the event, Marcel Suarez, Quality Assurance Analyst at Sumitomo Chemical, pointed out the importance of working with GFSI-certified suppliers that ensure they work with products that meet quality, safety, legality and authenticity requirements, thereby empowering the industry in various links within the value chain.
Likewise, Cristóbal Ávila, product manager for Sumitomo Chemical's postharvest division, stated regarding his assessment of this edition of the Postharvest Academy that: “Although it sounds logical, when we see the different technical teams in the field and packaging, they are not always connected and coordinated. For Sumitomo Chemical, it is very important to be able to promote integration in the technical and commercial teams, seeking to broaden the vision of fresh fruit production from the field to the table, looking towards a present where global food is the new challenge for the industry. We believe that by uniting the forces of the field and packaging, and sharing the needs of both worlds, we will be able to capture real opportunities that will benefit our clients, the real beneficiaries of what we do daily.”
For his part, the Co-founder and General Manager of Diagnofruit Laboratories, Héctor García, who also participated in the presentations given at the Postharvest Academy, emphasized the importance of enhancing sanitization systems and being able to frequently monitor the different processes, in order to strengthen the action of the sanitizer in conjunction with the fungicide. Together with Juan Carlos Labarca, technical and commercial advisor at Sumitomo Chemical, emphasis was placed on the different advantages and benefits of using technologies and products at the different critical control points, showing information collected on various packages in the national industry, which demonstrate the real effectiveness of one of the most used systems in the industry, PhORP.
One of the highlights was Professor Juan Pablo Zoffoli, from the Pontifical Catholic University, a recognized expert in the area of post-harvest, who provided a series of details on the different parameters that affect the quality and condition of the cherry, visualizing the production chain and its impact from packaging to the field. Likewise, Carlos Tapia, Founder and Technical Director of Avium, gave his opinion on the realization of the VII Post-harvest Academy, which for the first time united the pre-harvest and post-harvest in a single instance, stating that, “this is the second time that I have the opportunity to participate in the Pace International Academy and I think it is a tremendous opportunity that they have been able to incorporate these two concepts in a single event, the field and the packaging. A topic that we have to be talking about permanently for a longer time, and to offer each other help and information bidirectionally for a continuous improvement in the production chain. Therefore, I think that, it was definitely a success for Sumitomo Chemical.”
In this way, Sumitomo Chemical and its Postharvest Division Pace International, reaffirmed their commitment to innovation and sustainable development in agriculture and look forward to continuing to collaborate with the agricultural community to address the challenges facing the industry today. The VIII Academy will be held in October 2024, where we will once again encounter topics and trends that will undoubtedly provide the opportunity to meet and enjoy the conversation just before the postharvest season in Chile.
