Manuel Alcaíno, president of Decofrut: "An urgent change of varieties is required"
“In Chile there are almost 20 thousand hectares planted with blueberries and 90 thousand tons of fresh fruit are produced, plus another 30 thousand that go to the processed industry, which makes a total of 120 thousand tons of production, so we would be talking about 6 ton / ha, which is very low ... ”
Manuel José Alcaíno de Esteve, is an agronomist from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, chairman of the board and founder of the consultancy Decofrut at 1987, advises numerous exporting and fruit producing companies in Chile and Peru, is a member of the Advisory Board International Produce Marketing Association, PMA, and in 2015 it is integrated into the PMA Central Directory.
The diagnosis of Manuel Alcaíno is concrete, does not stay in the problem, but raises the measures that must be implemented to solve the shortcomings that he sees in the field of the blueberry industry.
"A lot of wrong things were done, starting with the selection of varieties, and I think Chile needs an adaptation, an urgent renovation of the variety barracks that we have, which is not easy"He says.
- Can you create a variety of your own?
- Chile does not have that capacity, the INIA is developing something, there are funds for that, but it has been oriented for some raspberries, some strawberries ... it could be ... but there is an international genetics industry for blueberries that has much more competition than What is in the country.
- What is the main problem then?
- There are many varieties that were planted with very little information and that have very low production volumes, or very little post harvest life, or are of low caliber. The combination of these three things has a very negative effect on our fruit exports.
Manuel Alcaíno analyzes the figures displayed by the Chilean blueberry industry and concludes that the change of varieties is urgent and must be started immediately, although according to his data "50% of Chilean plantations now have more competitive and better quality varieties, such as Duke, Brigitta and Legacy".
"In Chile there are almost 20 thousand hectares planted with blueberries and 90 produces a thousand tons of fresh fruit, plus other 30 thousand that go to the processing industry, which makes a total of 120 thousand tons of production, so we would be talking about 6 ton / ha, which is very low. If we take out what is growing and others, we would reach 8 ton / ha, which is still very low ", reflects.
The change, for Alcaíno, is due not only to the issue of productive performance, but also to the bad arrivals of the fruit to international markets.
The renewal of the variety park will have a positive impact on the quality of our exports, says the director of Decofrut.
Source: Blueberrieschile.cl - Blueberriesconsulting.com
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