• In an interview with Frutas de Chile, Osvaldo Erbetta, who has been in the company for more than 17 years, detailed the actions they have taken to promote varietal replacement in blueberries and cherries, along with detailing the innovations they have implemented and the challenges they will face this year. 2024.

Hortifrut is located as one of the most consolidated firms in the national and international fruit industry thanks to the quality of its fruits. With more than 36 years of existence, the company is positioned as a leading global business platform in the production and marketing of berries, and its history dates back to the early 80s.

For this new blueberry season, the company seeks to increase growth using new genetics. This is what the agronomist and general manager of the company, Osvaldo Erbetta, commented: “We are committed to promoting the growth of blueberries with new varieties. We not only extended this growth to the Hortifrut orchards but also extended it to the producers who work and trust us.”

In an interview with Frutas de Chile, Osvaldo. Erbetta, who has been with the company for more than 17 years, detailed the actions they have taken to promote varietal replacement in blueberries and cherries along with detailing the innovations they have implemented and the challenges they will face in 2024.

-What are the changes that Hortifrut has experienced with respect to blueberries?

“In the last 5 years the industry has experienced a reorganization in terms of volumes and that has affected blueberry producers who have gone out of business because the sector has lost competitiveness. For this reason, in more than 40 years they have been adjusted from 120 million kilos (5 years ago) to 88 million kilos, which was the reality of the last campaign. We are part of that decrease and from our point of view it was a necessary adjustment because the Chilean industry had lost competitiveness both in profitability for the producer due to low production per hectare and poor quality at destination. For this reason, we made the adjustments and started a varietal replacement project which will begin to bear the first fruits starting this season, therefore, this campaign will begin to increase the volumes of blueberries thanks to the different genetics."

The company began a varietal replacement project in blueberries, which will begin to bear the first fruits starting this season.

“The Chilean blueberry industry is old, therefore the plantations that were made were with old genetics, which did not meet the quality and delivery performance that was not satisfactory. Therefore, given the rise in costs and competitiveness, these are orchards that are no longer profitable along with poor quality fruit. Therefore, new genetics have the advantage of better withstanding post-harvest conditions and also allow you to bet on higher yields, which keeps the blueberry business profitable.”

– What have been the actions that have been carried out to promote varietal replacement in blueberries?

“In Hortifrut's agricultural fields we did a cleanup in which we eliminated all the hectares that were not productive and that were not of good varieties. Much of what we eliminated we have changed with varieties such as Apolo and Keepsake, which are from Hortifrut genetics and which we have tested for 6 years from a productive and commercial point of view. We are committed to promoting the growth of new blueberry varieties. And we not only extended that growth to the Hortifrut orchards but we extended it to the producers who work and trust us.”

“In the case of the characteristics, Apolo is a very vigorous variety, which can obtain high productivity per hectare in much less time than with normal varieties. We are expecting quite interesting productions at the end of the 24 months. The caliber is extra jumbo and with very good firmness. In the case of Keepsake, it is a mid-late season variety that has an average caliber of 18 millimeters, with very good vigor. And its main characteristic is its good flavor: it has a sweetness-acidity relationship that makes it a very attractive variety for consumers around the world. These varieties will be aimed at our best customers and supermarkets that Hortifrut has in the US, England and Asia.”

Apolo is a very vigorous variety, which can obtain high productivity per hectare in much less time than with normal varieties.

-Is varietal replacement also promoted in cherries?

“There are fewer varieties in cherries than blueberries. The most important existing varieties in Chile are Santina, Lapins, Kordia and Regina, which have good post-harvest and good production. At Hortifruit we are developing some new genetics, specifically focused on low-cold varieties. We are in the initial stage of these varieties in Chile. The varieties are of Spanish origin, they have already passed the quarantine of the Agricultural and Livestock Service, SAG and we are already carrying out the first tests to evaluate their potential in Chile."

“These varieties are oriented towards China since the cherry industry is 90% focused on China and we are more or less in the same proportion. And we have the other 10% focused on the US, which we are trying to promote in some windows of the campaign where we see opportunities in the American market, which is the Post-Chinese New Year period.”

Leadership

-Hortifrut is recognized in Chile and the world for the quality of its products. What are the keys that have driven the growth of the firm?
“There are several factors that explain our growth. First of all, we are present in various parts of the world offering fresh fruit to our consumers. Second, we have an important concern for the genetic material and that is why we have several of our own genetic programs. We are always looking and fighting for quality. We are specialists in berries and that makes us maintain clients throughout the year and develop lines of work with different clients around the world that make us specialists in the business.”

-In the past you have made alliances with companies such as Alifrut. Are you looking to create new associations this year?
“With Alifrut we created Vital Foods, which is one of the frozen berry companies in Chile. We are always seeing opportunities in various topics. It is part of Hortifrut's DNA in Chile and the world. The benefits that these alliances give us are that they allow us to grow faster and that is a way to take advantage of the synergies that these processes produce.

“Our main challenge is to consolidate the supply and volume of very good quality blueberries for our customers. We seek to give the producer the greatest benefit and deliver a very good quality of fruit to the consumer,” explained Ebetta.

-What innovations do you highlight that they have implemented?
“In our internal processes we are making both productive and operational innovations. An example is the innovation we carry out with varietal replacement in which we create a totally different system to be able to grow quickly with our products. We made genetics and plants available to our producers to encourage rapid varietal replacement, understanding the difficulties that the business has had. By making the plant available to producers for free, it is a very great innovation to accelerate this process of varietal replacement.”

“So far it has been a very good innovation. In fact, we managed to plant together with our producers 500 hectares of blueberries, which is a significant increase in volume with a good quality offer for external clients and the producer the possibility of doing a profitable business due to the high production potential that we should achieve. with these varieties. In addition to this contribution in plants, we created a Hortifruit technical support area to accompany the producer from the choice of soil to the moment of harvest.”

-What are the challenges of this year?
“Our main challenge is to consolidate the supply and volume of very good quality blueberries for our customers. We seek to give the producer the greatest benefit and deliver a very good quality of fruit to the consumer. In the case of cherries, we seek to increase volumes, which goes hand in hand with good quality at destination and good returns for producers in Chile. At Hortifrut we are always available to the needs of our clients and producers, since we are a dynamic firm, we are committed to joint development both in the development of exporters and producers."