With just over a month remaining until the next edition of Fruittrade, Fedefruta President Víctor Catán previewed some of the main topics that will shape the event’s discussions, emphasizing Chile’s strengths, the technical expertise available in the country and the need to restore the competitiveness of its fruit industry.
According to Catán, Fruittrade will have three main areas of focus. The first will be to highlight Chile’s comparative advantages as a fruit producer and exporter; the second, to showcase the country’s “wealth of human and technical expertise”; and the third, to examine how competitiveness can be restored to an industry that, in his view, has significant room for growth in the short and medium term.
“We have significant comparative advantages, and we need to align them in the right direction,” he said. He also pointed to the need to review public policies, improve relationships among the different participants in the supply chain and move toward an industry in which its various links understand that they share a common objective.
Along those lines, Catán said that one of the remaining challenges is to achieve greater coordination among the stakeholders in the fruit industry. “The main thing is to bring the links in the chain together and sit down at the table to create a structure, a governance system and a mechanism for resolving conflicts that may arise, rather than waiting for legislation or for a powerful hand to come in, pound the table and bring order to the industry,” he said.
The Fedefruta president also called for a review of some of the decisions that have shaped the sector’s recent development, citing the growth of the cherry industry as an example. In his view, some of the current difficulties are related to expansion that was not always accompanied by a comprehensive understanding of the supply chain or by each stakeholder taking responsibility for the fruit’s final outcome.
The blueberry industry as an example of specialization
Against this backdrop, Catán particularly highlighted the evolution of Chile’s blueberry industry, describing it as an example of how a sector that experienced a period of rapid growth can transition toward a more specialized and professional model.
“The blueberry industry went from a period of unstructured growth, with a series of decisions made without much information, to becoming a much more specialized and professional industry, and we are seeing very different results,” he said.
Among the changes, he particularly emphasized how decisions concerning varieties are now made, supported by greater access to information, research and technical expertise.
“Today, the industry has developed on the basis of knowledge, reliable information and prior research—not on the assumption that because something worked for a neighboring grower, it will necessarily work here,” he said.
For Catán, this evolution demonstrates how specialization and the use of reliable information can make a difference in the performance of different fruit sectors. “Blueberries are a good example of how a sector that experienced unstructured growth and went through difficult times can now perform well by doing things properly. That experience needs to be applied to other fruit sectors,” he concluded.
Fruittrade 2026 will take place on September 29 and 30 at Jardines El Mercurio in Vitacura, Santiago. The event will bring together representatives from across Chile’s fruit industry around nine thematic areas.
