Prunes magazine nº3 (english version)

magazine

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Santiago de Chile - december 2017

There was also an indepth analysis of the challenges the industry is facing, from the search for better fruit size to the stagnation of world consumption.

5th Version of Expo Ciruelas Secas 2017 takes a 360ยบ look at quality

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Editorial 12

years ago, when Chile Prunes was created, we asked ourselves the following questions:

Where can we open-up markets for the new orchards that are going into production? Is it possible to tackle the European market more fiercely and compete with the United States? Is it reasonable to concentrate such a high percentage of our exports in Mexico and Brazil?

Today, Chile has earned its position as the main player on the world market. We are a fully developed industry that is certified under the world’s most demanding quality standards.

Chile has always had attributes that are hard to attain: we are a serious country; we have unbeatable farming conditions; we are a phytosanitary island... but we were missing one last thing: making the leap to QUALITY. And now, we’ve finally taken that step thanks to fully integrated work from the tree all the way to the consumer, creating an excellent product that is recognized all around the world.

Editorial Board Pedro Pablo Díaz Andrés Rodríguez María Paz Soto Christian von der Forst Jorge English General Publisher Christian von der Forst Edition and Design PuertoC Comunicaciones & Marketing.

A magazine of Chile Prunes Association AG.

95% of this quality comes from the orchard. Farming work makes all the difference when it comes to offering premium prunes to the rest of the world. This has been achieved thanks to the steadfast commitment of growers who understand that trees have to be taken care of perfectly, and that large, sweet prunes have to be harvested quickly and correctly. We must understand that we are producing a fruit that will go through more transformation processes than probably any other fruit in the world, and in order to do this, we need fruit that is noble, healthy, attractive, sweet and big.

The remaining 5% relies on processing technology. Thanks to this concept, we can control the use of preservatives and supply tenderized prunes with a low level of defects, such as pit fragments.

But, major changes are on the way. This industry could radically change the way it exports in a blink of an eye. We have to break free from the ever uncomfortable notion of commoditization and add value directly from our ports to the consumers’ mouths.

I’d like to invite you to read this magazine, which on this occasion consists of a special issue devoted to ExpoCiruelas 2017, which was held on November 8th in Santiago, Chile. No matter what country you’re in, we’re sure you will find valuable information in terms of production and commercialization, and data on everything consumers and intermediaries are looking for. This 360 degree view will allow us to keep improving day after day.

Pedro Pablo Díaz Chile Prunes Chairman Chile Prunes Association, address Cruz del Sur 133 of. 703 Las Condes - Santiago - Chile (56 2) 24724783 - info@chileprunes.cl

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Briefs Quality, Does it Matter?

“At Expo Ciruelas, we wanted to do an exercise and we wanted people to ask us why we were doing it”, said Pedro Pablo Díaz, chairman of Chile Prunes.

“The experiment was to put an small prune in your mouth and notice the difference…”

The presentations at Expo Ciruelas Secas were focused on the quality elements demanded by consumers and required by processors, the elements the marketing department relies on and the farming practices that yield the parameters every grower and processor is after: a tasty, sweet, good-sized prune. For this reason, we performed an experiment during the coffee break, where we set out prunes for our guests to taste. One plate had large-sized fruit, while the second contained small prunes. When it comes to appearance and taste, the consumers (the crowd invited to the event) were right: while the dishes containing the large prunes were left empty or almost empty, the plates with the smaller prunes were left almost untouched. This situation was seen at nearly all tables. The direction we have to take is clear!

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Robust, Reliable Machinery from the U.S.A. Southern Solutions, a company that represents suppliers of equipment and processing lines for the produce industry, was one of the partners at Expo Ciruelas Secas 2017. They have managed to establish partnerships with leading global companies that provide robust, reliable machinery; in fact, they recently closed a representation agreement with Valley Welding Machine Works, a company with a long standing track record located in Fresno, California.

“Within its deep product portfolio, the company supplies cutting-edge technology fruit sizers (VI-PRO System) that require minimum annual maintenance, are quiet, have great capacity and don’t need any complex systems to operate them”, says Gaspar Espejo, managing partner of Southern Solutions.

At Expo Ciruelas they unveiled the main equipment supplied by the company and announced new partnerships with Purotecs and HiSide, American companies that provide sanitation solutions to the agriculture industry through ozone and equipment lines. HiSide, a wellknown company in Chile, did not have direct representation in the country until now.

We mustn’t forget that Southern Solutions’ main client is The Ashlock Company, leaders in the Chilean prune and cherry pitting machine market. The company just launched a machine that drastically reduces the presence of post-pitting fragments.

The event resulted in several meetings being scheduled, as well as the sale of at least 4 sizing machines.

Briefs

Expo Ciruelas analyzes the challenges for chilean and foreign prunes

Larger sizes, labor costs, the need to increase world consumption and opening new markets are all important issues. The most important issue in the fifth version of Expo Ciruelas Secas 2017 (Prunes Expo) of the day was 360° QUALITY, in other words, how to work comprehensively from the tree all the way to commercialization at points of sale in international markets, discussing what consumers and traders understand when they think about quality.

“Chile is a world-class player when it comes to prunes, because we are a serious country, we have unbeatable farming conditions, we do solid private-public work and we are a phytosanitary island”, says Chile Prunes Chairman, Pablo Díaz; to which he adds, “another fundamental aspect has appeared over the last few years, and that is that quality has to be present throughout the entire production chain, although we have to continue working hard in order to achieve top-quality fruit.

Article in pages 06 to 09

Bill Krueger, nearly 40 years linked to prunes Glenn County (California) farm advisor has worked in every stage of production for a variety of different crops, including almonds, prunes, walnuts and olives. Integrated pest management has always been an important part of his agenda, and today, he is researching safer, less disruptive methods of pest and disease control.

Bill Kruger was in attendance at the fifth annual Prunes Expo, sharing a California success story that pools together all of his years of experience, research and joint work, all of which has resulted in important technological breakthroughs in irri-

gation, orchards, tree density, fruit curdling and thinning, among other topics. Below, we present a portion of his lecture.

Article in pages 019 to 021

Recommendations from Importaco’s Pedro Torrijos Discovering what a customer is looking for in a product or service will always be a significant challenge, and, therefore, finding out this information is a major breakthrough. That is why the tips supplied by Importaco’s purchasing director for Latin America, Pedro Torrijos, regarding the prune business are such a valuable source of information for growers and exporters who have to struggle every day in order to gain access to international markets.

As the person in charge of finding the best suppliers for the Spanish company according to the trends and

preferences he observes, Torrijos stated at the 5th annual Prunes Expo, organized by Chile Prunes, that everything starts with a dream, in his case, the dream was “reducing customer complaints over raw materials”.

Importaco’s purchasing director for Latin America provided some valuable information about how to generate a better quality product in accordance with consumers’ current demands.

Article in pages 010 to 012

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The core concept was quality

Expo ciruelas analyzes the challenges for Chilean and foreign prunes

Larger sizes, labor costs, the need to increase world consumption and opening new markets are all important issues.

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Cover Topic

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n November 8th, the fifth version of Expo Ciruelas Secas 2017 (Prunes Expo) was held at the Monticello Convention Center, south of Santiago, and it was attended by over 250 people from the Chilean and worldwide prune industry (mainly Argentina).

The most important issue of the day was 360° QUALITY, in other words, how to work comprehensively from the tree all the way to commercialization at points of sale in international markets, discussing what consumers and traders understand when they think about quality.

“Chile is a world-class player when it comes to prunes, because we are a serious country, we have unbeatable

farming conditions, we do solid private-public work and we are a phytosanitary island”, says Chile Prunes Chairman, Pablo Díaz; to which he adds, “another fundamental aspect has appeared over the last few years, and that is that quality has to be present throughout the entire production chain, although we have to continue working hard in order to achieve top-quality fruit.

In fact, he does not want to allow any room for complacency. “In the future we will face a turning point in which everything can change from one day to the next in terms of exporting, and we have to get onboard that bullet-train. 360° quality and a fully integrated industry are the things that have earned us our position at the top of the global industry, but we

have to move forward in terms of generating value, creating a brand and dealing with sustainability”. These are three major challenges that must be taken into account.

Increasing low consumption levels and opening new markets Another major challenge is global consumption, which has plateaued in recent years, including downward trends in a number of countries.

Chile Prunes Executive Director Andrés Rodríguez had the following to say on the subject: “per capita consumption is around 30 grams a year, but the trend is sliding downward. It’s not a dramatic drop, but we don’t see consumption levels increasing sustainably over time”.

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Cover Topic

In order to deal with this situation, he believes it is imperative to increase promotion, open/diversify markets and do research on just how healthy this product really is (Health Research).

Regarding the first point, the work done with ProChile in China clearly stands out. New initiatives are expected in the future, and both growers and exporters have to be united in order to achieve this objective.

Yet another challenge is diversifying present markets.

Claudio Ternicier, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, states that “today, our focus is on nuts and dehydrates, especially prunes. We are aiming at diversifying markets, and in order to do so, China and India are highly relevant”.

“Our first challenge as an industry is to enhance demand.

The only way to continue growing in volume, yet not decrease prices, is to increase demand”, adds Rodríguez.

Chile exports dried prunes to 77 countries, but the top ten concentrate 73% of our shipments. Meanwhile, this fruit is consumed in 211 nations, with the top ten only representing 60% of the total. “This shows that we (Chile) are more concentrated than the rest of the world, leaving room to grow in new markets” according to Mr. Rodríguez.

In terms of health research, all countries must face this challenge. Research is being done in conjunction with the IPA (International Prune Association) about the nutritional benefits of prunes, including their high level of antioxidants and fiber, and how they offset osteoporosis, even regenerating bone density that has already been lost. “We’ve known these things for a few years already, but we have to continue researching in order to have scientific grounds that will allow us to use these selling points at a global scale in our promotion and marketing efforts”, concludes the Executive Director of Chile Prunes.

Fruit size and labor When it comes to fruit size, the industry has to strive for larger calibers. The United States has steadily maintained

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Cover Topic

50%-60% of its production within the larger sizes (60+).

France is completely dedicated to producing quality large sizes, above 70, with the average hovering around 65.

Chile is quite lower, around 50, with larger sizes making up about one third of its production.

Bill Kruger, farm advisor for Glenn County (California, U.S.A.), also highlighted another challenge by revealing that in California, labor costs were high, for example, for pitting activities. “We have to make changes and innovations, because producing prunes has become expensive in the United States, more so than walnuts and almonds; plus, we are getting diminishing returns.

For all of these reasons, in California, people are planting almonds and walnuts everywhere”.

All the hard work will simply have to continue, then. No time for complacency. Our products have to stop being viewed as commodities; we have to add the maximum possible value at all production and commercial stages.

We are on the right track, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Producing the World’s Best Prune “Chile has to consider itself the world’s largest prune exporter and aim towards top quality fruit”. With these words, grower Andrés Olivos summarized the goal that, in his opinion, must be on the horizon of all Chilean producers. This objective, he said, depends on achieving average sizes between 60 and 70, which demands production strategies aimed at elevating orchard management standards (in irrigation, fertilization, pruning, thinning and harvesting) and improving post-harvest processes (drying).

During his presentation at the fifth annual Expo Ciruelas Secas, Olivos also recommended performing homogenous management in orchards and

making sure nutritional support is done in accordance with fruit extraction, also emphasizing the importance of monitoring work in order to correctly respond questions referring to “how, when and how much”.

The grower stated that in his case, these steps have allowed him to achieve fruit of a greater size and quality, not to mention more quantity. However, he also called upon the Chilean industry to unite in order to do joint work that would allow them to all achieve the same results, making sure the world sees the country’s product as “prunes from Chile, not Santa Cruz or Peumo prunes”.

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Analisys

Recommendations from importaco’s Pedro Torrijos

Meeting Customer Needs without Failing Importaco’s purchasing director for Latin America provided some valuable information about how to generate a better quality product in accordance with consumers’ current demands.

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iscovering what a customer is looking for in a product or service will always be a significant challenge, and, therefore, finding out this information is a major breakthrough. That is why the tips supplied by Importaco’s purchasing director for Latin America, Pedro Torrijos, regarding the prune business are such a valuable source of information for growers and exporters who have to struggle every day in order to gain access to international markets.

As the person in charge of finding the best suppliers for the Spanish company according to the trends and preferences he observes, Torrijos stated at the 5th annual Prunes Expo, organized by Chile Prunes, that everything starts with a dream, in his case, the dream was “reducing customer complaints over raw materials”.

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How can this objective be achieved?

“Customers want a quality product with high food safety standards. They don’t want problems, they want prunes that taste good, look attractive and have the right texture. Consumers don’t want to find pits in their fruit”, he concluded.

They also want competitive prices, because if prunes are expensive, customers will simply move on to other fruits, such as dates. He also pointed out that people are trying to migrate towards fruit that has low preservative levels: “We have to avoid allergens in our products” said the expert.

Seven Steps Once you have made the commitment to supply a fruit that meets the expectations demanded by your customers, the next step is drawing up a roadmap.

Analisys

Analisys

A “plan”, as Torrijos calls it, which in the case of Importaco consists of seven steps. Time to take notes: 1. The customer is at the core of the quality system.

The objective is to work together with the customer in order to be certain about what the end consumer wants. In other words, we have to shift from “subjective to objective, to factual data”.

Everything has to start with a dream, and in the case of Importaco, this dream was reducing customer complaints over raw materials.

2. Design and redesign the product’s entire quality system, making sure the customer falls in love with the fruit they are being supplied with. In order to achieve this, we have to be able to supply the same “10 point” quality all year.

3. Technology. This is the path to quality control.

Currently, technological breakthroughs allow producers to detect any anomaly and make immediate decisions during the production process, paving the way for 4.0 quality. In order to achieve this, a

preventive model must be constructed based on data analysis, and quality control must be automated.

4. Big data. Data management must be at the center of the decision making process. Data must be used to understand the trends found within all of our processes.

5. Pre-agreed quality. A consensus must be reached with customers regarding any defects the fruit may have and producers must ensure that shipments are made on a regular basis, thus anticipating any issues and passing through all controls in a timely fashion.

This means evolving from quality control performed at the destination, to a system previously agreed upon with the supplier.

6. Knowledge transference (know-how). Information must be shared freely among all the members of the value chain. “We have to build trust amongst ourselves”, says the Importaco executive.

7. Break boundaries, question processes. You must reach the conclusion that there is infinite room for improvement, and that although investing in quality may be expensive, how high is the cost of rejection?

During his eloquent presentation, Pedro Torrijos was clear to state that, in his opinion, with consumers that demand more and more every day, the solution to satisfying their demands is for suppliers and customers to work as a team, always striving to be leaders in terms of quality at the lowest possible cost.

“We have to stay away from the spot model”, he concluded.

Supply quality products

Keys for reducing rejection

Supply good taste, attractive visual appeal and the right texture.

Sell at competitive prices.

Move towards fruit with a low level of preservatives and without allergens.

Provide food safety.

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Cristián Infante, Pacific Nut

Processor’s perspective: challenges for obtaining world-class fruit Cleanliness, moisture, size, damages and defects and being pesticide-free are key aspects for a premium product.

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long the same lines as the other speakers heard during the fifth annual Expo Ciruelas Secas, for Cristián Infante, production manager at Pacific Nut , quality is a fundamental success factor for the Chilean prune industry.

In order to advance towards the goal of supplying the world with top quality fruit, the expert mentioned some of the parameters that must be taken into account, specifically cleanliness, moisture, size, defects or damage and being pesticide-free.

Regarding this last parameter, serious problems have to be attacked head-on, such as a high presence of fungi, keeping anything from coming into contact with the plant. “We need raw materials in optimum condition…

We have to do preventive work”, he stressed.

Another key is drying, which must be done evenly for all fruit. “It is very different to sell fruit with 14% moisture content than fruit with 21% moisture content”. In that sense, the expert states that “we handle units, not kilos; therefore, moisture has to be homogenous, making the other processes easier”.

In terms of quality “it is impossible to pit a fruit that has no pulp or no texture, otherwise we risk fruit arriving to the customer with pit fragments. That simply cannot happen”.

In conclusion, for Infante there are six conditions that the industry must take into account: 1. A cleaner product makes processes more efficient.

2. Larger sizes translate into better returns.

3. More defects lead to lower performance and effectiveness in production processes.

4. By delivering better fruit we run fewer risks with the end customer.

5. Better fruit equals less processing costs and fewer rejections on the line. In the end, 6. Fruit cannot be improved during processing. High quality raw materials are fundamental.

He concluded by pointing out that processors have made investments to improve their infrastructure and technology in order to honor the quality commitment they’ve made with their customers and deliver nothing but high quality fruit to the end consumer.

Calibres

For this Pacific Nut executive, it is also extremely important to continue working on yielding larger sizes, condemning the industry’s behavior last season, in which growers’ supplies contained a high percentage of smallsized fruit. He called upon the industry to minimize this situation, setting a goal of only offering only 10% worth of small sizes in order to then move on to only 5%.

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In the world

New challenges for commercial areas

Concentrate on markets that focus on quality, tradition, certifications and compliance According to Pedro Monti, commercial manager for Prunesco, we have to focus on more complex markets that allow prices to be profitable for growers, processors and the entire production chain.

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n their attempt to supply prunes to different markets around the world, exporters must focus on the most demanding customers, the ones that are looking for prunes of greater size and quality, prunes that taste good and have homogenous moisture levels, prunes that can be eaten directly as a snack, used for cooking or to be used in added value products.

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There are also other less demanding markets that are looking for lower priced prunes, be they in natural condition or in smaller sizes, mainly used for cooking.

These are opportunity-based customers: they look for the best offer, no matter where the product comes from.

This is all because of a very simple reason: that is where the best prices are obtained, not to mention the gains that can be earned in terms of prestige and country-brand.

“The problem is that here there is a price war. On the other hand, in the more sophisticated markets, sales points are Quality, History/Tradition, Certifications/ Guarantees, Compliance and Price, but price as simply one more variable”.

According to Pedro Monti, commercial manager for Prunesco, these more sophisticated markets are mainly European, like Germany, Italy and England, among others, where 80% to 90% of prunes are large sizes and they have been historically supplied by the United States and France. “This is where Chile also has an opportunity and where we are already entering the market” says the executive.

We have to target more sophisticated customers; customers who offer a high level of reward and long term relationships, unlike the spot market.

In the world

We have to target the more complex markets according to Mr. Monti, markets that allow prices to be profitable for growers, processors and the entire production chain. These customers also offer high repurchasing levels and long term relationships, unlike the spot market’s “one-shot deals”, as is the case in markets that are only looking for low prices.

How can we continue to grow? The challenge for producer countries is to increase export value, and in order to do so, we need to make progress in the following points: - Higher value products – high quality raw materials; - Constant quality improvement; - Product innovation “where Chile has been lagging behind”; and - Industry consolidation, which implies less exporters and more homogenous quality and prices.

All of the above must be accompanied by active promotional efforts, tasks that might sound obvious, yet they have to be done nevertheless: - Participating in trade shows.

- Opening and looking for new markets.

- Product development.

- Strengthen Chile’s image as a serious, stable country.

- Visit customers – capture needs and understand problems.

- Pricing.

Beatriz de la Jara, Pacific Nut.

Martin Basile, PampaSur.

“We had a wide range of speakers. The event was not just focused on growers – where raw materials are critical in order to have a quality product – as it also included processing, which is a key aspect for us as exporters. It was also very interesting to get to know the customer’s side; seeing how Chilean prunes are perceived by the rest of the world. It was a really good seminar and we would love to delve deeper into quality-related issues, such as hydro activity, moisture and how to achieve raw materials that meet the highest possible standards”.

“This is the first time I’ve come to ExpoCiruelas in Chile and I thought it was very thorough.

All aspects were discussed, both commercial and productive. It has been, without a doubt, very interesting for all of us within the industry: service providers, growers and exporters”.

Gonzalo Muñoz, Frutexsa.

“This is the first time I’ve been to an event like this and my expectations were fully met. There was lots of great information; information that is useful for me on the farm – especially in terms of irrigation and pruning – and also information about the business in general”.

Cristián Valenzuela, Los Olivos Farming Company.

“The speakers’ presentations were ver y interesting, especially Juan Pablo Sotomayor, who provided lots of information and very valuable statistics. Having these numbers is incredibly practical for us, as they allow us to make better decisions in terms of our production”. 015

Social

Images of a great congress Over 250 enthusiastic repre sent ative s of t he plum industry from Chile and the world attended, the f if th version of Expo Ciruelas Secas 2017 (Dried Prunes Expo), held on Wednesday, November 8th, at the Monticello Convention Center (south of Santiago de Chile).

From left to right, Pedro Torrijos, Pedro Pablo Díaz, Claudio Ternicier, Andrés Rodríguez, Marcelo Sobarzo, Federico Montes and Javier Plaza.

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Héctor Claro, Gaspar Espejo and Catalina Espejo.

Joaquín Tagle and Rodrigo Lecaros in a break.

Javier Plaza and Juan Eduardo Spoerer in animated conversation.

All ready and prepared to receive the guests.

Social

Plums and a good coffee to replenish energy.

Eduardo Bustamante, Gregorio Bustamante and Pablo Guzmán

Claudio Ternicier, undersecretary of Agriculture, visit orchards and prune processing plants virtually.

Carlos Céspedes, La Rosa Sofruco.

“I thought that all of the issues discussed were excellent, especially the ones about the new technologies that are being used in the United States, such as new pruning techniques.

This is relevant, because labor, like the labor used in pruning for example, is becoming more and more scarce and expensive”.

Leonardo Witting, harvesting machine representative and prune producer.

Claudia Pinochet, Frutexsa.

Catalina Munita, Ama-Time (the company processes organic products and is planning to make prune juice and sauce) .

“I really liked the par t about what is needed to improve quality for the end user. Prune size seems to be highly important. I enjoyed the high level of participation and the inclusion of a vision from the side of the grower, the business and the end customer”.

“We are trying to develop and fully understand our raw material in order to know what we should use for our product, as it is focused on babies. We are especially interested in ever y thing that has to do with pesticides and fer tilizers; the way the trees and raw materials are handled. For all of these reasons, ExpoCiruelas has been very useful to017 us”.

“Bringing someone from the United States to compare the work they’ve done with what we’ve done in Chile is very good, as it provides the latest up-to-date information. In addition, meeting with other producers is very helpful in order to see what the other growers are up to”.

Advertorial

Luksic Educational Foundation

Innovation as a key element in education

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n Wednesday, October 25, Luksic Educational Foundation organized a breakfast, to witch different world leaders and enthusiasts over innovation in education, industry and state were invited.

The goal was to announce and let everyone know what the Foundation is working on, promoting through FEL INNOVA (Luksic Educational Foundation Innova), an innovation and entrepreneurship unit to the community, and establish a dialog about this thematic focused on detecting the existing necessities to be able to purpose joined work spaces that would search as a result to be a positive input to the country’s development through a differentiated educational model.

This instance allowed a wide work conversation, with the clear objective of materializing the development of collaboration models, the execution of formational activities with themes related to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, searching for the transfer, in an environment that leads to concrete and measurable results through innovation activities.

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Rodrigo Díaz, Inacap; Jaime Arnaiz, AC3E; Sergio Giacaman, Essbio; Carlos Escobar, Universidad San Sebastián; Alejandra Portillo, Universidad de Antofagasta; Benjamín Arias, Unilever; Edmundo Casas, Kauel; Paola Luksic, Fundación Educacional Luksic; Gonzalo Valdés, Fundación Educacional Luksic; Jaime Retamal, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Constanza Proto, Micrisoft; Pablo Vaillant, Duoc UC y Javier Burgos, IBM.

Paola Luksic, President of the Luksic Educational Foundation, manifested that “these convocatory instances have as objective that the leaders of different institutions and businesses can expose their ideas, and that, through education we can empower the learning of our young people, key elements supported in the innovation and entrepreneurship”. It emphasized in the experience that it’s currently being seen in the Agricultural Institute Pascual Baburizza in Los Andes, and how through these methodologies and infrastructure it seeks to increase the opportunities of young talents.

Later the day was led by Gonzalo Valdés, Executive Director of Luksic Educational Foundation, and suppor ted by Edmundo Casas , exper t in inovation themes, they established an enriching conversation, with participation of key representatives in the innovation and entrepreneurship world, like the Pontifical Universidad Catholic University of Chile, AC3E of Technical Federico Santa Maria University , Antofagasta University , San Sebastian University, Inacap, Duoc UC, IBM, Unilever, Essbio, Kauel y Microsoft.

Gonzalo Valdés, Executive Director, gvaldes@fundacioneducacionalluksic.cl

Interview

Bill Krueger, nearly 40 years linked to prunes

Learning from California’s Production Experience Glenn County (California) farm advisor Bill Krueger has worked in every stage of production for a variety of different crops, including almonds, prunes, walnuts and olives. Integrated pest management has always been an important part of his agenda, and today, he is researching safer, less disruptive methods of pest and disease control.

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man with a long-standing track record – he started working with prunes in the eighties – Bill Kruger was in attendance at the fifth annual Dried Prunes Expo, sharing a California success story that pools together all of his years of experience, research and joint work, all of which has resulted in important technological breakthroughs in irrigation, orchards, tree density, fruit curdling and thinning, among other topics. Below, we present a portion of his lecture.

California beginnings: Mechanized harvesting began in California in the sixties and it revolutionized the industry all the way from the coast to the central valleys, from Sacramento to San Joaquin. There was a period of large growth in the eighties, all the way up to 85,000 acres (around 34,000 hectares), although there was a drop-off after the year 2000.

Labor: The cost of labor is becoming a major concern, and the highest cost is seen in pitting and drying.

Producing prunes in the United States has become expensive, more so than walnuts and almonds; plus we are seeing diminishing returns. I’ve even seen plum trees being removed to make room for almond trees.

Variety. The California prune industry is dominated

by French varieties due to their more consistent production, adaptability to mechanized harvesting and because they are easy to process and dry.

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Interview

Irrigation. Annually, we irrigate between 40 to 42 inches per acre. Some years we’ve used deficit irrigation, gradually increasing water stress levels throughout the season, which we manage using pressure chambers, which in my opinion is the best way to do it. This helps improve harvest windows, does not interfere with the quality of the fruit when it is done correctly and it helps reduce drying costs. Lack of water causes fruit to crack and small prunes. We used to see this problem more when we used flood irrigation, but this has been improved thanks to drip irrigation and micro-nozzles.

Orchard design and plantation densit y.

Traditionally, prune orchards have been planted using a spacing of about 20 feet (around 6 meters) or more. An orchard planted in the eighties with a spacing of 9 feet (about 2.7 meters) in a row and 16 feet (approximately 4.8 meters) between rows, or, 303 trees per acre, yielded over 9 dry tons per acre a year and averaged 6.6 dry tons for 6 years, with 75 dried fruits per pound. Another orchard with a 14 by 17 (4.3 meters by 5.2 meters) tree spacing and rows facing North-South, as well as several pruning treatments, averaged 6 dry tons per acre with a total fruit count of

70 over four years. In addition, an orchard planted in an equilateral triangle arrangement of 18 by 18 (around 5.5 meters by 5.5 meters) with 155 trees per acre has also been a popular and productive plantation. By planting vegetation barriers, the space within the rows is less than the space between the rows.

Rootstocks. Most California prunes are planted using plum rootstocks containing microbalanus plantlings, which are believed to provide better anchorage and light tillering, although individually they vary more between one another. The 29 C microbalanus, a rootstock that uses vegetative propagation that produces more even trees that regular microbalanus plantlings has the disadvantage of having more deficient anchorage.

Fruit Curdling. Excessively high temperatures during bloom resulted in lower fruit curdling levels and lower crop levels three out of the last ten years. Research has shown that the growth of the pollen tube is more sensitive to heat than pollen germination. This means that although the pollen can germinate, it could be damaged due to excessive heat before it reaches the ovule, thus affecting pollination. Temperatures above 29 degrees centigrade during flowering have been considered to be problematic. Growers have tried to deal with these conditions through measures used to reduce the temperature inside orchards, such as evaporation cooling through the use of micro nozzles or by maintaining more high coverage crops when there are excessively high temperatures during bloom.

Mechanical Thinning. Since the sixties, the most predominantly used system has been to mechanically thin prune trees with excessive crop levels. Procedure: using a reference date, when the endosperm is visible in dissected fruit (early November in Chile), remove and weigh all of the fruit from a few representative trees.

Count and weigh a sample in order to determine the amount of fruit per kilo. Multiply that by the weight of the tree’s fruit in order to determine the amount of fruit per tree. By using historical data from prior harvests, determine the amount of fruit the trees can support while they produce the desired size. Add 20% to the fruit count in order to include the fruit that has fallen

020

Interview

from the thinning prune up to harvesting. Shake another representative tree in order to partially eliminate fruit.

Weigh and count a fruit sample to determine how many pieces of fruit were extracted. Adjust the intensity of the shake and the timing in order to achieve the desired rate of elimination. Then, thin the orchard and review it periodically by collecting a new sample in order to make sure that you are achieving the desired amount of fruit.

Mechanical Pruning. The high costs associated to manual pruning have led growers to look for alternatives. A study began in 2006 aimed at comparing different times and kinds of mechanical pruning used in conjunction with other management techniques, such as mechanical thinning and manual pruning from the ground without the use of a ladder. Mechanical pruning techniques included stoppage time and summer time, with flat cuts at treetops, rooftop cuts and V-shaped cuts (a V-shaped cut was made at the center of the tree parallel to the row). After the first year, due to

excessive regrowth after the stoppage period, timing was changed to the period immediately after harvesting, which resulted in less regrowth. During the four years the study was conducted, all treatments achieved very good yields, with satisfactory fruit counts between 65 and 70.

Mechanical pruning treatments were not performed in an isolated manner. They included all of the management practices that we consider appropriate for the crop load, as well as mechanical thinning and a lighter prune from the ground using long- handled scissors and pneumatic shears. Cost savings compared to manual pruning with ladders and branch cutters was between 30% to 40%.

It is possible to use mechanical pruning combined with other management practices to achieve high yields and good quality fruit, while significantly reducing pruning costs by removing ladders from the equation for at least four years.

021

Sector numbers

Chilean Prune Worldwide Export *Al 15 de noviembre (FUENTE: ODEPA) YEAR

UNIT

VOLUME

2017*

Kgr.Netos

67.072.068,00

ANNUAL VARIATION

2016

Kgr.Netos

70.104.829,94

9,06%

FOB IN U$

ANNUAL VAR.2

MID. PRICE

157.948.818,50

-21,2%

2,25

153.364.500,00

2,29

2015

Kgr.Netos

64.278.564,14

-0,31%

200.336.443,15

-14,1%

3,12

2014

Kgr.Netos

64.478.292,93

2,86%

233.350.663,38

54,5%

3,62

2013

Kgr.Netos

62.684.098,89

-18,73%

150.991.753,27

5,97%

2006

Kgr.Netos

42.052.782,12

2,41

94.329.966,89

2,24

* to october of each year (SOURCE : ODEPA) YEAR

UNIT

VOLUME

ANNUAL VARIATION

FOB IN U$

ANNUAL VAR.2

2017

Kgr.Netos

62.863.652

11,69%

143.665.200

-0,86%

MID. PRICE 2,29

2016

Kgr.Netos

56.282.966

8,68%

129.266.679

9,35%

2,25

2015

Kgr.Netos

51.788.235

163.374.864

-1,63%

3,12

Exports per month 2017 MONTH

UNIT

VOLUME

FOB IN U$

October

Kgr.Netos

7.620.045,00

18.182.400,00

September

Kgr.Netos

7.407.301,28

17.172.144,31

August

Kgr.Netos

7.160.822,10

17.106.479,15

July

Kgr.Netos

7.046.233,00

16.452.800.00

June

Kgr.Netos

7.150.440,88

16.841.113,97

May

Kgr.Netos

9.831.759,94

21.176.849,24

April

Kgr.Netos

4.941.815,24

10.820.836,25

March

Kgr.Netos

3.030.570,92

6.498.709,52

February

Kgr.Netos

3.267.358,44

7.370.267,65

January

Kgr.Netos

5.407.315,3

12.051.661,4

SOURCE ADUANA

Map – concentration of prune exports per country in terms of value (in terms of value) List of importing countries for the selected product in 2016 Gloss: 081320 Prunes, dry

FUENTE: TRADE MAP > 24.771

9.908 - 24.771

4.954 - 9.908

2.477 - 4.954

495 - 2.477

0 - 495

N.A.

*Valor Importado. Miles de USD

022

Sector numbers

Destinations Ranking

Number of destination countries for Chilean exports 72 59

59

74

75 69

66

61

2016

77

77

N°

73

Description Volume

FOB in US$

1

USA. - EEUU 10.790.765,54

19.171.875,17

3

Mexico

6.503.655,00

13.201.944,73

2

Reino Unido

5.980.358,00

15.488.940,88

5

Polonia

4.947.930,00

11.086.134,51

4

Italia

4.200.896,00

11.777.224,66

8

Rusia

3.657.120,00

8.206.510,72

7

Alemania

3.583.511,00

8.969.937,49

6

España

3.410.806,00

10.818.863,39

9

Holanda

1.683.150,00

4.603.491,17

10

Australia

1.584.840,00

4.510.684,55

2015 N°

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

In ten years Chile came from 59 to 77 destination countries in 2016.

Evolution of the volume imported by the world’s major prune importers. (TON)

Description Volume

FOB in US$

1

Mexico

25.677.111,66

3

USA. - EEUU 8.938.829,44

24.454.420,98

2

Polonia

4.926.390,00

14.839.679,91

5

Reino Unido

4.562.494,00

15.254.920,82

4

Alemania

4.393.460,00

15.669.392,22

8

Rusia

4.380.396,00

13.249.530,66

7

España

3.700.910,00

13.249.239,18

6

Italia

3.687.430,00

13.314.238,95

9

Australia

1.419.265,00

4.900.197,83

10

Venezuela

1.320.000,00

5.114.046,04

9.197.919,00

40000

2012

35000

N°

30000 EEUU Federación Rusa

25000

Alemania Brasil

20000

Italia Reino Unido

15000

México Japón

10000

España Polonia

5000

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

0

Description

Volume

FOB in US$

1

Rusia

17.363.203,00

33.283.418,68

3

Mexico

8.204.610,00

13.091.701,98

2

Polonia

5.933.515,00

10.871.875,31

5

Alemania

5.445.067,50

11.301.756,59

4

Brasil

4.791.741,35

6.509.120,58

8

Italia

3.896.180,00

8.011.353,68

7

Reino Unido

3.097.015,00

5.861.188,35

6

España

2.951.325,00

5.144.896,11

9

Argentina

1.831.020,00

1.684.632,20

10

Lituania

1.686.140,00

3.035.953,61

023

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