Manuel Alcaino's vision is critical when analyzing the present of the Chilean blueberry industry, stating: "I see the situation for the Chilean blueberry as complicated and it will depend on how fast we are to react if we improve this reality and adapt." The international expert in the fruit exporting industry maintains that the Chilean blueberry has had problems since before the pandemic in some markets. Due to questions about its quality and arrival condition, mainly. To this is added the growing offer of foreign industries that dispute the windows that it has enjoyed, in some cases even displacing it from some places. However, despite this vision, his diagnosis is optimistic regarding the future of the industry, preserving these objections and stressing that the process of structural changes must be urgently expedited, and in the process also consider the post-pandemic scenario.

Complete and global offer

In a previous interview with this medium, he explained that blueberry is currently a product that is on the market for 52 weeks of the year, a situation very different from when there was an American offer in the US, for example, that then there were two or three months without supply and then came the Chilean offer that covered 2 or 3 more months of that market. Those were the sales periods in the US. Today comes the Peruvian offer, which covers the early part of Chile, and that of Mexico, which covers the late part. In Europe the same thing happens with Morocco and Spain, which configures a complete international supply in the year, so "the exclusivity that the Chilean producer had was lost and this is a reality that will not change."

Post pandemic industry

Manuel Alcaino comments that the pandemic has not affected the Chilean industry as much, "for now", because the virus spread after the main flows of the industry. "If it had been earlier it would have affected shipments more," he warns. The expert calls to focus on what is to come, in order to face the “post pandemic” stage, making the necessary changes and planning in time to successfully tackle the immediate future of the industry.

“Fruit in bulk or in bags in supermarkets will no longer be viable. Anything that means excessive human manipulation will be displaced by what is packaged. The closed and transparent clamshell will achieve advantages when deciding on the purchase, "he stresses, adding:" Manual selection in the orchard of the Mexican industry, for example, should be replaced by automated systems, "he says.

According to Alcaino, the industry in general will have to incorporate more and better technology. "In the case of labor, which is already a problem, its lack will be aggravated by the sanitary and distancing restrictions that will be the norm for a long time," he says, and insists on the urgency of a structural change in the varieties that are grown, adding to this need a new obstacle that will have to be overcome: maritime transport. 

The trips are extended   

The president of Decofrut believes that Chile has to redirect the industry towards the cultivation of varieties that offer a greater caliber and the firmness necessary to face the long trips to destination. 

“We have to consider that post-pandemic shipping will be very different. The smooth traffic we were used to with departures every week to different destinations will be affected. Today there are plants that are already closed and complete route lines have been cut. There are shipping companies that will no longer work and most likely, shipments will be spaced, slowing the maritime flow of cargo, so a fruit that does not have the legs to hold the time that will add the wait and the trip will not be viable for the distant market. We must seriously look at the new genetics available and get away from the current varieties. That is where Chile has to invest, "he insists.

Critical in the present and optimistic in the future

"I see the situation for the Chilean blueberry as complicated and it will depend on how fast we are to react if we improve this reality and adapt," he warns, although looking at the future in a more general perspective, he acknowledges that the actors of the fruit world "belong to the segment suitable".

"We are lucky to be in a good business, because this is a business that will not stop. It can't stop !, because it was demonstrated in this crisis that we are a strategic sector for the economy and above all for life and human health ”, he assures. He comments that consumption has not changed, on the contrary, at some times it has increased if it is compared week to week or month to month with previous seasons. "At times it looks like a Christmas sale because of the enthusiasm to buy."

Manuel Alcaino ends by reiterating his call to urgently implement the varietal change, which different experts have warned the Chilean industry, and in passing analyze the crisis caused by COVID19 as a whole, to better adapt to the various scenarios that will arise after the pandemic.