Native Berries: A new opportunity for the export of Chile

03/03/2015

Chile is the main exporter of berries in the southern hemisphere in volume and value, and the fifth largest exporter worldwide. However, the berries most exported from our country are raspberries and blueberries, which are originally from the United States and Greece. In this context, a study developed by Fundación Chile in conjunction with GfK Adimark called "Healthy Chile" indicates that native fruits such as maqui, murta and calafate have superior advantages in terms of antioxidants and dietary fiber compared to berries. traditional.

In this scenario, Chile has great opportunities to enhance the functional attributes for the development of products and ingredients with health benefits. In addition, according to the study by Fundación Chile and GfK Adimark, a permanent demand for native berries could be established through the incorporation of an added value that is attractive and retains the quality characteristics of the raw materials. For example, energy drinks, antioxidant drinks, low-calorie dressings, organic tea, among others, may be commercialized.

However, to be able to address the demand for native products in Chile, it is key to ensure the sustainability of the industry through the domestication of these native species -maqui and calafate- and the increase of cultivation areas for the case of the murta. . The interest for the study of the native fruits of Chile obeys to a world tendency of search of new raw materials with high contents of antioxidant. In this sense, the antioxidant portal of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA) indicates that both the calafate and the maqui and the murta, are the berries that concentrate the largest amount of polyphenols, if we compare it with the main berries produced in Chile as they are the blueberry, the raspberry and the strawberry.

Source: Diario la Prensa