The seminar provided a unique platform for networking, exploring the latest trends and technologies, as well as successful cherry growing experiences in the northern chilean area. For two days, around 250 participants had the opportunity to be part of different presentations and activities designed to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration between peers.
Jorge Astudillo, production manager of Valle Arriba SPA and co-founder of the Early Season Cherries Seminar, shared his enthusiasm with the high expectation generated by the event. Astudillo highlighted the importance of sharing experiences and knowledge: “We are very happy for the high attendance, we have all the reserved spaces filled. This day began with the welcoming words from Aldo Morales and also with the director of ProChile, which is very important because thanks to them it is possible to carry out this seminar and I had the honor to open the fires with a conversation about the reality, experience and why we are making cherries here in Ovalle, Chile”.
On the other hand, Aldo Morales, general manager of Susttex and also co-founder of the seminar, talked about the successful closing of the event at Agrícola Santo Tomás, where critical issues were addressed, including soil analysis and innovative agricultural practices. “It has been an important effort by our collaborators, which translates into a quality seminar, where different topics related to the cherry can be analyzed […] this seminar is represented by the motto ‘path towards consolidation’, because we believe that it comes to consolidate the idea that Ovalle is an area which will expand, in terms of cultivation and its economic importance”, he added.
During the meeting, Natalia Arcos, international director of ProChile, expressed her excitement about the potential of this emerging crop in the area. “We are very happy to be participating and supporting this activity and also, we realize that it is a whole product that is being developed from this region that we had not seen and that it has great potential. As we also saw in the various exhibitions, China is going to become a relevant market for this region and we are very happy to provide this support in the internationalization process”.
The owner and producer of the Chilean farm Santo Tomás, Tomás Araya, shared in his words how the seminar helped address key challenges for local producers, such as the packaging and export of cherries. “The challenges that we had as producers was the packaging and export of the cherry and thanks to last year’s version of this seminar, we were able to talk with Teno Fruit and they will be the ones who are going to bring their processing lines to the Seiko refrigerator, to be able to carry out the processes here in the region”.
Finally, Facundo Quiros, manager of the Mendoza Chamber of Cherries, highlighted the importance of institutional articulation and technology in the production of early cherries, and pointed out how collaboration between different regions can help face common challenges, such as climate change.
“We had participated since the first seminar, where we began to build a relationship with different people from the Chilean industry and many of them participated in the Second Seminar on Early Cherries that we did in Mendoza and the result of this kind of encounters is the committed that we have established to going deeper with Ovalle, since the biggest challenge of producing early cherries is climate change and obviously, knowing how to adapt to the different productive areas, with the application of the technology that it deserves. These technologies are present in this sector and that is why we are seeing these amazing results”, he concluded.