Representatives of six Chilean companies exporting fresh fruit from the Bio Bio Region, the Regional Ministerial Secretary (seremi) of Agriculture, Francisco Lagos; the Regional Director of the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), Roberto Ferrada; together with professionals from the institution, met in Los Ángeles to evaluate the functioning of the Unified Addendum Agreement between SAG and Frutas de Chile.
“The meeting was very positive, there was a very good evaluation by the exporting companies of this Agreement, which allowed them to have the availability of /as /as at the plant on an exclusive basis, making the inspection and fruit dispatch process to the various exit points much more productive and agile,” highlighted the Regional Head of Agricultural and Forestry Protection of SAG Bio Bio, Rodrigo Ther.
Likewise, Ther explained that “the Unified Addendum is a collaborative agreement, through which support personnel are hired to reinforce the inspection work, which consists of the visual observation of the fruit during the packaging process in fresh fruit packing plants, in order to certify its phytosanitary condition.”
The regional head added that, through this agreement, exporting companies can count on at least one inspection team at the plant, who are responsible for verifying compliance with the phytosanitary requirements established by the destination markets.
For his part, the Operations Manager of Exportadora El Volcán Foods, Cristian Gonzalez, pointed out that “it was a very good opportunity to review the functioning of the Addendum. For us it was a modality that helped us a lot, it solved situations that complicated us in previous seasons. Through the Agreement we were able to carry out more than one inspection per day, which undoubtedly speeds up the entire logistics process and we can get the fruit there on time. It was a very, very good experience.”
In the Bio Bio Region, six establishments participated under this modality, allowing the inspection of two million five hundred eighty-three thousand five hundred forty-two boxes of blueberries for markets such as the European Union, Russia, South Korea, China, Taiwan, among others. To carry out this work, 15 inspectors were hired, who were assigned to the establishments on an exclusive basis, allowing for timely attention to the reviews.
