To the town of Virquenco, The Minister of Agriculture arrived in the commune of Los Angeles, in the Biobío Region, Esteban Valenuzela, to lead along with the President of Fruits of Chile, Ivan Marambio, the first edition of the “Blueberry Day” which brought together various representatives of this industry and presented Producers' outlook for the upcoming blueberry season in the country.

The activity, which was also attended by the United States ambassador to Chile, Bernadette M. Meehan, aimed to make visible the work that the Chilean blueberry industry is doing to improve both export and production conditions at the national level.

“We are very pleased as a government and we come to thank Frutas de Chile and in particular the Blueberry Committee, for their contribution. So that you can understand, Chile this year will break all records in terms of fruit exports, we will be over the 6.500 million, which is very important because after mining, the food industry and forestry and agricultural food industry generate a very, very relevant contribution to the development of the country, the Region and the territories," Minister Valenuzela pointed out.

Meanwhile, the president of Frutas de Chile, highlighted the efforts of the national industry to position blueberries worldwide and thus generate the option for producers and exporters to take these blueberries to different markets.

"We do this so that the world can see what the Chilean blueberry industry is doing, What we are doing is renewing new varieties, improving the logistics chain, technology, sustainability and, in general, what we are doing to increase consumption of blueberries in the world. This type of event shows us to the world.”

“We have to worry about quality. Quality is by far the most important thing, we cannot give in an inch in sending the best fruit to the markets and, in addition, we must make progress in phytosanitary matters.

NOur aspiration is that all our fruits, for all markets, in all regions, are not fumigated and hopefully in the case of the United States we can have a System Approach for all of them".

Ambassador Bernadette M. Meehan, for her part, stressed that “Chile is a very important partner for the United States and the agricultural relationship is one of the most important parts of the relationship. We have the counter-season that benefits people in both countries and the United States is the main market for blueberries, with more than 200 million exported from Chile to the United States every year," said the representative of the North American country.