Back in September, executives from the retail chain visited Chile as part of their efforts to ship agricultural products directly.
Not only cherries, but also Chilean plums have experienced a significant “explosion” in their exports, growing by 40% compared to the period from October 2022 to September 2023.
In this context, during the “Chile Week China”, the Ciruelas Chile association signed an agreement with the Chinese supermarket chain Freshippo. With this, they will be able to export these fruits directly to the shelves of the aforementioned stores.
Freshippo is a company of the Alibaba Group, the same company that operates Aliexpress.
According to ProChile, it is currently among the top five retailers in the Chinese market and owns more than 400 supermarkets in 28 cities.
Back in September, executives from the retail chain visited Chile as part of their efforts to ship agricultural products directly. They also visited plum fields in the O'Higgins region.
CHILEAN PLUMS DIRECTLY TO FRESHIPPO COUNTERS
From ProChile, its general director Ignacio Fernández, highlighted the agreement and congratulated the Chilean plum industry.
“We are very pleased with the work they have done and we are glad that as ProChile we have contributed to this success. This is the public-private work that we love to do and that shows that Chile's weeks in China are effective,” said Fernández.
For his part, the president of the association, Jesús de la Riva, commented that “this is the end of a cycle where producers are able to connect directly with end consumers; understanding what they want, maintaining quality standards and achieving a fairer price for the entire chain.”
As a pilot project, 15 containers will be sent during the next plum season. This will allow the logistics and quality aspects of the product to be evaluated.
CHILE WEEK CHINA
Representatives of the supermarket company and China Eastern Logistics participated in an economic seminar during Chile Week in Hangzhou, where they described success stories through work with national products.
In addition, two protocols were signed on Tuesday to open the export of fresh fruit to China through ports and airports in third countries and a protocol for shipments of pork meat and by-products.
China is currently the top destination for both Chilean fruit and meat, accounting for US$2.2 billion and US$346 million respectively.
Regarding plums, between October 2022 and September 2023, exports reached US$ 209 million.
