There was a significant presence of Chileprunes associates at ENEXPRO “diversify your market”; this exporters meeting took place between August the 26th and August the 28th in Antofagasta, Metropolitan and Los Lagos regions.
It was organized by ProChile and it gathered more than 600 national exporter companies and more than 100 international buyers from 27 markets from the five continents. There were multisectoral business roundtables, technical field visits and networking meetings in key areas like agri-foods.
Rodrigo Lecaros, South365 general manager, highlighted the participation of the sector and his company in this meeting. “We met with Chilean exporters from different sectors: dried fruits, fresh fruit, among other sectors, importers from different countries of the world with one on one 20 minutes meetings. Moreover, we could connect with ProChile commercial offices from different markets”.
South365 had meetings with clients and interested parties from Indonesia, Arab Emirates, the United States and Colombia and also with commercial offices from China (Shanghai), Spain, Russia and Colombia.
“These are very positive situations that allow us to understand what is going on in economies and markets: how consumption, demand, inflation, stock levels and rotation speed are evolving. We also receive information on how the Chilean offer is perceived in comparison with the one from other producer regions like California, France or Argentina and which are the quality attributes they value more”.
Claudia Marangunic, Onizzio export manager adds that in a common space organized by ProChile they met with the exporters in a very orderly and planned way, with a before hand defined agenda which made it possible to take the best advantage of each meeting.
“The diversity of potential customers was very positive. We had meetings with companies from places very different such as Colombia and the Middle East that were interested in different products. These meeting are always important: they can open doors to new customers or they can strengthen relationships with the ones we already have”.
In general, the organization was excellent, the schedule was respected and the environment was favorable to concrete commercial ties.
Vicente Cepeda, Prunesco regional manager, says that “despite the fact that the interest in prunes was not the highest in this opportunity- for the attention was focused on dried fruits in general- for Prunesco is very important to be a part of this meetings. We value ProChile’s effort to constantly promote Chilean products and we always want to support these very useful steps for our country”.
Cepeda highlighted that participation allows the exploration of new markets, look for customers and strengthen commercial relationships: “we are happy we went because these spaces help us to open ways, increase sales and continue putting the Chilean prune in the world”.
Finnaly, Alejandra Guerrero, Baika Fruit dehydrated fruit export manager, valued the partaking of the company in this international meeting highlighting not only the contacts made but also the part ProChile offices play in different markets.
“We connected with several buyers interested specifically in prunes, we saw more interest in dried fruit like walnuts. It was very important to meet with ProChile commercial offices in Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Madrid and Moscow. It was an important opportunity to reinforce ties, meet in person and align objectives in each market”.
Guerrero explained that these instances open new ways like promoting formats for retail sales, create contacts with markets where there is low presence of the product, spread the word about the company with the help of the commercial offices and get strategic information about consumption and tendencies.
“The office in Russia, for example, shared very complete statistics about tendencies in the category. Besides the specific data, it was important to let them know our objectives”.
The executive also valued meeting with other exporters. “These spaces are good for meeting, talk and collaborate even with actors that are sometimes competitors and sometimes customers. This strengthens the sector as a whole”.
ENEXPRO took place in a context marked by exportations over US$100 thousand million in 2024, a record figure, and its objective is to consolidate the country as reliable and competitive supplier of goods and services of high added value.
