By Victor Maroto S., Commercial Manager, Exportadora Fruttita Spa
What a particularly complicated year, but with more good things than bad. Since January, being in China, I witnessed how everything began. At first, we did not fully understand the impact of Covid-19 and it was seen as a distant threat, which would only impact China. In a short time, everything changed, after being in China during January, seeing one of the best seasons in the industry.
On January 23 of this year, everything changed; the Chinese government began closing cities, markets and ports, creating chaos in the industry. The market suffered huge declines and the fear of uncertainty increased, however, large volumes were sold, not only of cherries, but also blueberries, plums and grapes, among others. The strength of this market is very great, although it reacts in unexpected ways, it never closes or stops selling. After almost a year since the pandemic began in the world, I can reflect that we are better prepared to face this challenge and from a personal point of view, I believe that China will surprise us with good sales again, despite the fact that they could not celebrate last Chinese New Year, I hope that this year they will celebrate it twice. To achieve this we must assume tremendous responsibility from the producer to the exporters; it is a year of very restricted travel and for this reason we have to do everything perfectly, without errors and with an industry and country as united as possible.
As I mentioned at the beginning, one of the good things that Covid brought me was the fortune of sharing more intensely with my family. I am married to Adriana, my super partner, she and our 3 little girls (17-12-1 years old) live in Guayaquil and I live in San Fernando. Before this was not difficult, we had to travel a lot but we were ok! In March, Covid arrived in Guayaquil where I was quarantined for 5 months, they were challenging times for everyone, but the result was incredible. I was lucky to be with my youngest daughter, Victoria, until after her first year of life. Being away from Chile, I learned to value even more the important things, family, friends and work, for this I thank you all for your support, I will keep this experience as a tremendous memory in my life.
While we are all worried about Covid as if it were the only threat, a giant of the industry is fighting a disease that is worse than Covid, and once again we, the members of the industry, are here to support him, from the heart and as a big family. We are all strong with you.
Today we are facing a great challenge, the industry and the world must face it. As a country, Chile has always been an example and we have been at the forefront of everything related to production, food safety and security. Today we will see the fruits of years of effort. We implemented the Covid protocol, which was developed jointly with the Cherry Committee, Asoex, FDF, which, in turn, was approved as a standard by SAG and MINSAL, in a great achievement for the entire industry.
One of the great benefits that Covid has brought is the union of the cherry industry, which is now represented in 80% by the Cherry Committee, which works for all producers in Chile. He invited those companies that have not yet joined this association to join forces to continue working for farmers and make a difference in their settlements and the positioning of our country through marketing campaigns.
Today, the committee has even assumed more responsibilities and participation with the SAG, seeking to prevent phytosanitary problems that could endanger markets such as China. We are also working together with the government to find methodologies that allow the industry to operate more safely.
Another of the pillars that the committee manages are the new health challenges that we must face as a result of Covid, which is why they worked for more than 7 weeks with a large group of exporters and processing plants in order to reach the already known Covid Protocol which must be complied with by the entire industry.
Today more than ever, the marketing campaign that the Committee is developing will give Asian consumers peace of mind and security to avoid problems such as the already known ones with Ecuadorian shrimp, Brazilian chicken wings, among others. We believe that the way of communicating is the key.
In such an influential Chinese market, we are trying to ensure that Covid does not affect our sales. It is a year of very important challenges and, although unity is very large, important players in the industry are missing who should participate. I have invited them to contact us if they have any questions so that we can always be more, as Chile has shown on other occasions.
Once these points have been discussed, let's get into the season. The fear of frost has disappeared, so we face a season of important loads, understanding that there is little time left for the load to be well defined. At the moment, in the sixth and seventh regions we have seen very high set in Lapins, Regina, Sweet Heart among others, which we will have to adjust. In a year that could potentially reach 60 million boxes, we have to consider that the size and flavor will be key to the results, so those who must make load adjustments, now is the time, today we have to look for the challenge of not producing more XL sizes that only affect prices, flood the market and affect sales, and we understand that we are an industry of 60 million boxes and growing, so there are sizes that little by little will have to find new markets and with different values.
