In October last year, Hortifrut and Alifrut signed an agreement to merge their export operations of frozen products, in equal parts. Hortifrut is the owner of Naturipe Foods, which produces and markets berries fresh and frozen, and Alifrut is a subsidiary of Duncan Fox and a processor and exporter of frozen fruits and vegetables in Chile.

The purpose of this merger is to promote the international development and growth of innovative products with added value, adapting to the new lifestyles of consumers in international markets, including the United States, Europe, Asia and Oceania. The merger was completed on July 31, 2020 and the new company is called Vitafoods.

The newly formed Vitafoods joins Munger Farms to prepare Naturipe Foods for the future with an additional volume of products estimated at 70 million pounds (31,75 million kilos), making it a very relevant global player in its category.

“Due to the general desire of consumers for better nutrition, coupled with current consumption trends, which have accelerated intensely due to the pandemic, we have seen a significant increase in sales of frozen foods in world markets. We believe that this trend will continue over time, so we expect great growth opportunities for the value-added frozen fruit and vegetables category in the main world markets. Our new association gives us a greater operational capacity to satisfy this demand ”, says Gonzalo Bachelet, CEO of Vitafoods.

Naturipe Foods' sales and marketing structure will continue to operate as before.