Along with the Ministry of Agriculture, CORFO’s Sustainability and Climate Change Agency and Chieprunes this important sector takes a decisive step towards sustainability in order to strengthen its position in international markets.
In a significative advance towards a more sustainable and competitive agro-industry CORFO’s Sustainability and Climate Change Agency and the Trade Association of Processors and Exporters of Prunes from Chile (Chileprunes) signed an Clean Production Agreement (APL, its initials in Spanish) to implement The Sustainability Standard for the Prune Agro-industry.
This agreement marks the beginning of a transformational process that will be developed in a 36-month deadline to implement the new Standard made under the program Chile Origen Consciente (Chile, Conscious Origin, ChOC, its initials in Spanish) an initiative from the Ministry of Agriculture that promotes the adoption of sustainability standards in the Chilean agro-industry.
In this way, the objective is to strengthen competitivity and knowledge of the prune, one of the main Chilean agricultural exports, that generates more than US$ 260 millions per year. This will be achieved through the optimization of the productive processes, the reduction of environmental impacts and the improvement in the relationships with the local communities.
Ximena Ruz, executive director of the Sustainability and Climate Change Agency, assures that as an agency we have managed more than 200 APLs and we have wide experience to support its implementation as well as to coordinate with the public sector to assure that the efforts made by the state reach you in an effective manner. We take great pride in that the Ministry of Agriculture has adopted the APLs as a key tool to boost the Chile Origen Consciente program.
Pedro Pablo Díaz, president of Chileprunes, adds that “this achievement defines very well how things must be made. It is the best example or how public and private initiatives, through serious work, can conclude good projects in an adequate time; their outcomes will provide the sector and the country with an extraordinary power. Here an industry, an entire trade guild and several institutions, are involved in a cross-cutting project to obtain a certification in terms of sustainability that is going to be very convenient”.
The APL (Clean Production Agreement) involves the collaboration of the Ministries of Energy, Environment, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs, the Agency of Agricultural Studies and Policies, Odepa in Spanish), the Agricultural and Livestock Agency (SAG), the National Agency for Promoting Exports, Prochile, the Chilean Agency for Food Quality and Safety (Achipa) and Chilean Agency of Energy Efficiency. This institutions as signatories of the agreement will help in the implementation of the 135 actions in the Sustainability Standard that involves 12 key themes including energy efficiency, green house gases reduction, water management, residue management, security and projections of the worker conditions, safety management and due diligence of the law among others.
Moreover, the aim is to strengthen the internal capacities of the companies to guarantee the correct implementation of the actions needed and to monitor and report the improvements in sustainability through key indicators in the sector. The companies that are committed to APL will be able to obtain the certification ChOC.
Daniela Acuña, vice director of Odepa, highlighted that “the signature of the APL (Clean Production Agreement) for the prunes represents and advance in sustainability in the agricultural sector which is a commitment of the Ministry of Agriculture and President Boric. The public-private coordination allows us to advance in these matters and to integrate a new sector to the program Chile Origen Consciente”.
The project through which the sector diagnosis was made, the Sustainability Standard and the APL proposal had the support of the Foundation for Agricultural Innovation (FIA, its initials in Spanish) through the initiative “design of a sustainability standard for the agro-industrial sector of prunes” made by Chileprunes and the technical support of the Interamerican Institute of Cooperation for the Agriculture, IICA, its initials in Spanish).
Carolina Fuentes, innovation executive at Foundation for Agricultural Innovation (FIA, its initials in Spanish), said that this institution has as an objective to promote innovation processes in domestic agriculture. “Supporting an agro-industry as relevant for Chile as the prune, which is demanded worldwide, needs sustainability protocols and standards to access these markets; we are supporting this with a project from 2022”.
Chileprunes, which represents more than 70% of the Chilean prune exports, has been a key factor in the design of the two specific sustainability standards in the ChOC (Chile, Conscious Origin) program: one for the primary production phase (plum orchards) and other for the agro-industrial adequacy (dehydration and tenderizing process of the fruit). During this first stage, an APL (Clean Production Agreement) was designed focused in the agro-industrial adequacy and the second stage will be focused in the primary production, making sure that the entire value chain meets the highest standard of sustainability.
