The second annual South American Blueberry Convention will be held at the Monticello Conference Center in San Francisco de Mostazal, Chile, on April 18.
The event is organized by the International Blueberry Organization and sponsored by ProArandanos from Peru, ABC from Argentina, Upefruy from Uruguay and Aneberries from Mexico, according to a news release. The event seeks to contribute to “collaboration and innovation” in the blueberry industry, the release said.
“The supply of blueberries from the South American region and Mexico dominates the market between October and April, so it is essential to understand the production dynamics and jointly seek to increase demand,” Andrés Armstrong, executive director of the Blueberry Committee of Chile, ASOEX, said in the release.
The convention will challenge the industry to focus on high-quality, new varieties and logistics issues in the production, export and global consumption of the fruit, the release said.
University of Chile agronomist Raúl Olivares, who has been advising on blueberry cultivation for 28 years, will speak about new variety development in Chile, the release said.
“The objective is to address the dynamics that the global development of new blueberry varieties has had in recent years, making it possible to expand the geography of their cultivation and improve the quality of the product at the consumer level,” Olivares said in the release.
Olivares, formerly a production manager in Chile for Driscoll’s Inc., currently works as a private consultant and is supporting the Blueberry Committee of Chile in its New Varieties Validation project, the release said.
The release said Ricardo Barckhahn, managing director of Cool Carriers Chile, will speak about lessons learned with Blueberries Express, a charter service that Chilean blueberry exporters implemented last year for the U.S.
“With the first season of relevant experience, we moved a large volume of blueberries and we want to continue to be present,” Barckhahn said in the release. “We believe that we are an important solution for the industry and we can develop many other synergies between the blueberry industry and us as transport service providers. It is the instance where we can transparently analyze the pros and cons of what is happening in the logistics chain, in the supply chain, and see how all the parties involved can collaborate to move this issue forward.”
