He Agriculture and Livestock Services Inspection and sanitary certification of European hazelnuts produced in the Las Quemas sector, Osorno commune. The fruit is sent to Europe for the production of flour, confectionery, oils, aromas, pastes, purees, snacks and for the chocolate industry.
Pablo Ureta, General Manager of the company Nafuen Trading Chile SpA, which processes and exports this fruit, commented that the business belongs to the Mohr family and the Goikolia family, who started looking for alternatives to the traditional (milk and meat) produce in the region, focusing on the quality, size and shape of the fruit . Size required by the market.
“The product is very well accepted, the quality of the hazelnuts is very good, the kernel-shell ratio is also very good,” he said.
In Chile, the main producing areas of European hazelnut are concentrated in the Maule and Araucania regions and the Los Ríos and Los Lagos regions have seen a significant increase in area.
Data from the Fruit Cadastre for the year 2022 indicate that the European hazelnut area in Chile reaches 36,393 ha, with the largest located in the regions of Maule (16,956 ha), Ñuble (6,558 ha), La Araucania (8,438 ha) is the area. ha) and Los Rivera (1752 ha). The Los Lagos region has seen a substantial increase in planted area in recent years, reaching 1,412 hectares, mainly located in the province of Osorno.
in that sense, Tania Salas, Regional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, He added that “between the years 2019 and 2022, the growth in the region nationally was 49%, while it was 59% in the Los Lagos region. Thus, although we are not the region with the largest plantation area, we have experienced significant growth.”
In the Los Lagos region, the fruit has been exported since 2018, the date on which the first shipment was made, reaching 8,000 kg. Since now, the export volume from this sector has increased from 60,400 kg to 114,300 kg in 2019. year 2020; 323,000 kg in 2021 and 372,000 kg in 2022. For this year it is expected to export more than 1,000,000 kg. The main destination of the fruit is Europe, with shipments to Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
“In order to export this fruit, the SAG should conduct a phytosanitary inspection of the product prior to dispatch and verify that the requirements relating to pests, packaging, labeling among other procedures defined for export are met.” SAG Regional Director, Cristian Andrade Fuentes.
“I would like to highlight the efforts of local producers and traders to generate new productive options on a commercial scale. Agricultural reconstruction is also possible in the country thanks to the sanitary standards that SAG preserves, and to consider entering into agricultural diversification. This is an important factor when doing, as in this case,” Andrade specified.
