With just a few weeks left until the end of the year, the Chilean prune industry can confidently say, “mission accomplished.”
Both the export sector as a whole—represented by companies associated with Chileprunes—and Pacific Nut Company, part of the Sutil Group, have sold almost their entire production, with only a few containers remaining to be shipped mainly to Europe and China.
Domingo Calvo, commercial manager of the company, points out that “in 2025, we achieved a high average product quality, as well as good prices. Global demand was very active, especially in Europe, which accounts for approximately 60% of our prune sales, with Poland, England, and Turkey standing out. The predominant product is pitted, tenderized prunes, while China, our main destination, imports natural prunes,” he says. The latter are dried plums with pits that have not undergone a “tenderizing” process (pitting and softening). “In this market, we have a good diversification of customers and we are aiming to continue diversifying, including through sales channels,” he adds.
The global supply of prunes was limited, and Chile has an important advantage: it is one of the world’s leading producers and has no significant competition in the southern hemisphere, which makes us a very attractive supplier each season.
On the other hand, he comments, prunes from China and Uzbekistan are beginning to appear on international markets, the former mainly destined for the domestic market, while the latter competes in markets such as Russia, Eastern Europe, and even China, although with its own varieties and styles of drying, making it a very different product and, moreover, in the opposite season to the Chilean one.
The executive points out that a new round of talks and negotiations will soon begin, looking ahead to 2026, with buyers from various parts of the world, and that delegations from China and Europe are likely to visit.
In the specific case of Pacific Nut, Domingo Calvo says that they are constantly committed to diversifying their markets, ensuring “the importance of putting their eggs in different baskets,” which makes Europe a priority destination within their range of 35 countries that receive their prunes. But diversification also occurs within a country, selecting customers through different sales channels, such as retail, distribution, processing, etc. Each customer has specific expertise and attributes, and we take that into account when selling.
Pacific Nut, a Chilean company that ranks as one of the world’s largest exporters of nuts, offering prunes, almonds, walnuts, and raisins, ships approximately 7,000 tons of prunes annually, representing around 25% of its business in terms of volume.
Sustainability is an important issue for this company. That is why they seek to move faster than the industry and have been issuing sustainability reports for more than four years, even though it was not mandatory for the industry to do so. They are also part of the NetZero 2030 challenge, a commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by that year.
“Sustainability continues to be a growing issue. Every year, we see customers demanding higher production standards and quality and safety certifications, especially in markets such as Europe and in sales channels such as retail,” says Pacific Nut. For this reason, since 2019, they have been a certified B Corporation, belonging to a global movement that hopes to redefine the meaning of success in the economy, using market forces to solve social and environmental problems. Since 2018, they have been certified by Cuantificación de Huella Chile (Footprint Accounting), the national program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management in small, medium, and large institutions. In addition, they measure the water footprint of all their processes in order to improve each season.
