• In an interview with Frutas de Chile, Sebastián Rodríguez, commercial manager of Verfrut, indicated that “a range of possibilities is opening up to explore different clients and to do things together. We are currently looking for synergies and clients to strengthen ourselves. We have made progress in working together, we are sharing information, to see where we can have more returns and be more successful.”

“This is tremendous news. We are very excited about the good things we will be able to develop as a group,” Sebastián Rodríguez, commercial manager of Verfrut, told Frutas de Chile about Unifrutti and Grupo Verfrut Chile & Perú officially joining forces after finalizing an acquisition agreement signed in January 2024.

In this way, the Unifrutti Group (which was purchased by Abu Dhabi ADQ in April 2022)
successfully completed the acquisition of 100% of Sociedad Exportadora Verfrut SA, a leading fruit company with presence in Chile and Peru, where it has more than 7.500 hectares with a fully integrated operation.

Known for its wide range of crops - including grapes, cherries, apples, blueberries, among others.

For Rodríguez, this opens up a range of possibilities to explore different clients and to do things together. For example, we have grapes from Peru and Unifrutti has grapes from Chile and we will be able to present something to supermarkets as a single group for a longer period of time. “This synchronicity will begin to appear, which will be very positive for us as well as for several of our clients. We will become market leaders. Therefore, we will have more weight in the negotiation, offering different products to Unifrutti clients that we did not have and vice versa. I must emphasize that we will be part of the same group, but each company will operate separately,” he added.

Romance Vercellino will manage Verfrut until December 31, 2025, and then, starting January 1, 2026, the Unifrutti group will take full control. “We are currently looking for synergies and clients to strengthen ourselves. We have made progress in working together, we are sharing information, to see where we can have more returns and be more successful,” explained Rodríguez.

For Unifrutti, the addition of Verfrut consolidates its portfolio of grapes, cherries, apples and blueberries, making it one of the largest producers of table grapes and cherries in the world, a leader in apples in the southern hemisphere and one of the main fruit companies in the world.

The objectives in India

India is one of the key markets for Verfrut. According to the company's sales manager, they used to be very big in that market, but then due to some problems they left and this year they returned to India, "which is a key market, with one of the largest populations in the world, which is growing quite a bit. Therefore, it will become an important market for apples and kiwis and it could also be cherries and grapes. Currently, we send apples and kiwis. This campaign has gone very well for us. I think that everything that the Chilean delegation is doing in India will have very positive impacts for the sector."