On Thursday, May 16, 2024, the Annual Assembly of the Chilean Meat Exporters Association, ChileCarne, was held at the San Pedro Vineyard in Requínoa, O'Higgins Region. This year, in addition to the participation of the associated companies, the Assembly was attended by the Director General of ProChile, Ignacio Fernández.
Pork and poultry are Chile's fourth largest food export sector after salmon, fresh fruit and wine, and represent 87% of Chile' s total meat exports.
The meeting reviewed the main actions carried out by the association during 2023 and discussed the challenges and opportunities for the industry in the coming years, highlighting the efforts made to keep Chile free of diseases that could affect production and trade, increasing biosecurity measures and thus helping to better face the uncertain global scenario and the opening of new markets. "Strengthening the opening of markets is key to maintaining the sector's competitiveness. Chile's ratification of the free trade agreement with the European Union, the resumption of poultry exports to China, and the opening of Vietnam for pork and poultry meat in Chile are the first priority for the sector," said Juan Carlos Domínguez, Executive President of ChileCarne.
In 2023, US$1,091 million was exported in pork, chicken and turkey meat, equivalent to 424 thousand tons and representing 87% of Chile's meat exports that year. The main destination markets are: for pork, Japan, South Korea and China, and for poultry, the United States and Mexico.
Prochile CEO Ignacio Fernández highlighted the coordinated public-private work through the ChilePork sector brand that has allowed Chilean pork to be positioned in Japan, South Korea, China and the Philippines. "The Food sector is Chile's second largest export sector. In 2023, food exports from the agricultural sector reached more than US$ 21 billion," said the Director of Prochile. He also emphasized, "We are niche in these sectors, which means that the product we sell is of very good quality, traceable, with top-level production and that is internationally recognized."
Producing and exporting companies gave their impressions
At the end, the managers of the associated companies thanked the director of ProChile and the president of ChileCarne for their presentations and gave their views on the topics discussed. Álvaro Ortiz, industrial manager of Agrosuper said: "There are challenges from the opening of markets that move the industry, also regulatory challenges that we must address over time and above all challenges in terms of how we strengthen our exporting power and our capacity as a country to reach different agreements".
Jaime Bascuñán, general manager of AASA, said: "we have made great progress as an industry, but as long as we do not have the shield that will mean the land management, it will be difficult to advance fully. Chile has natural barriers, it complies with all the requirements of the major world markets, we have the support of major institutions such as SAG and ProChile and we are recognized as a serious country. It is necessary to advance in these regulatory issues to continue growing".
From Coexca, its general manager Guillermo García indicated: "One of the great challenges we see as Coexca has to do with achieving the opening of our plants for the Philippine market, which we hope can be materialized this year . Also to maintain active all the other markets and finally to continue working on the big issues related to sustainability and the linkage of the companies with their regions and communities".
Pablo Espinosa, general manager of Maxagro companies, said: "We believe that we have many challenges ahead, especially in Asian countries such as Vietnam and India, which have evolved in their consumption, and we hope that the industry as a whole will be able to move forward with Chile Origen Consciente, which is a very important platform that covers everything from labor to the environment. As an industry we are hopeful that this seal will go ahead". With the latter, he referred to the progress made in recent years with the Chile Origin Conscious Program, an initiative led by the Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies (ODEPA) of the Ministry of Agriculture to promote the implementation of good practices in the Chilean agri-food sector.
During the Assembly, the members were able to learn about the balance sheet for 2023 and the budget for 2024.
Check out the article from ChileCarne's official website here.
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