The president of Fedefruta, Ramon Achurra, said at the 2nd Fair of Technology and Innovation Hortifrut, an event focused on the berries and blueberries industry in Espacio Riesco, that if the projections made by Fedefruta for this year are met, Chilean exports of fresh blueberries will displace apple exports in FOB returns.

According to estimates from Fedefruta, the value of fresh blueberry exports in 2016 will reach 545 million FOB dollars, surpassing both apple and cherry exports, and becoming the second highest revenue creator this year.

While this is due to the decline in the export volumes of apples, which this year recorded its lowest shipments since 2002, the export value of blueberry should increase by at least 6% relative to 2015.

"The berry and blueberry industries have become very important in the past few years,” said Achurra. Based on calculations of the private sector, he said, "currently Chile has over 30,000 hectares planted with these products, i.e. only 10% of the fruit surface in Chile and 17% of the export value of our fruits".

Finally, the union leader invited the more than 600 people attending the Fair to the 2016 PMA Fruittrade Latin America, to be held on November 9 and 10, so that they can make contact with the producers / exporters  of fruit and service providers in the region.