The American Chamber of Commerce in Chile (AmCham) recently held the seminar “Opportunities in the US Food Market” in which local government authorities, specialized speakers in the US food market and successful export cases were presented to the audience.
It is clear that the food industry is very important to Chile’s exports, second to copper and the government is developing public policy to position the country as a global power and major producer. The numbers are there, Chile has become a key player in the international food industry, ranking among the top exporters in the world in products such as grapes, berries, avocados, peaches, fish, wine and salmon and newer products such as baby kiwis and pomegranate fruit. Our trade balance with the US in this matter is very favorable to our country.
Chile has worked in the right direction to obtain success positioning its food products in the US market obviously benefiting from the Free Trade Agreement that started in 2004 and you can see the results just from visiting any supermarket in the US (no matter which state) where you will find an incredible wide range of items from wine, fruits and vegetables to gourmet and organic products in their racks, but in order to grow we should keep “awake” from competition (other FTA’s are being signed in South and Central American countries) and comply in such matters as social responsibility, environment, global warming, water usage, waste management and carbon foot print as was reminded to us by Michael Grasty, Director of AmCham.
At El Paladar.cl we have great expectations from the opportunities we foresee in the future within the growth of the organic and gourmet or specialty food business. Sales of natural foods have been estimated for $60 billion in 2009 and as statistics have shown sales have not only maintained, but actually increased despite the recession that affected the US and the world derived from the mortgage and financial crisis.
Chile is in a unique position to capitalize and become a global key player in the organic and gourmet food market growth based on quality, innovation and style coming from modern packaging combined with an ethnic and cultural heritage from having one of the world’s best climates for agriculture. However, challenges exists and if we are to be successful in today’s world consumption requirements we have to focus on excellence in production processes taking care of safety, environmental and animal welfare issues which we must comply as was mentioned before.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank AmCham for their invitation and expect to keep working closely with ProChile to export in the near future to the US market.
By Pedro Rodríguez Goycoolea
El Paladar.cl
