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Hi. I am looking for A list of exporters/ Growers of the following items that export into the US from Chile. The list needs to include the following data: 1. Name of the company 2. Physical address 3. Email address 4. Phone numbers (cell phone and regular phone) The items are: 1. Fresh Quince (Fruit) 2. Fresh Persimmon (Fruit) Very important: I am looking for ONLY for growers or shippers of these items, NOT importers or retail stores or distributers in the US who sells it. Please don’t refer me to any brokers web sites- only direct growers or shipper please
Greetings and thank you for your request for a list of Chilean exporter/growers active in the U.S market for fresh quince (known as membrillo in Spanish) and fresh persimmon (known as caqui in Spanish). To respond to this request, I found the several company databases of Chilean fruit growers/exports, to be useful. Despite an exhaustive search, I was unable to compile a full list of 10 companies meeting your criteria: five for quince and five for persimmon. Many of the companies who may be involved in the space, do not have enough information publicly available to confirm meeting your criteria. Furthermore, there are strong indications that both of these markets currently show low activity from Chile.
HELPFUL FINDINGS
After exhaustively scouring the cited documents, as well as several other platforms offering market information on the the fruit industry in Chile, I was able to identify three Chilean companies for which there is public information confirming exports of quince to the U.S, and two Chilean companies for which there is public information confirming exports of persimmon to the U.S. For these companies I was able to extract regular phone numbers, physical addresses, and emails for most. Mobile phone numbers were unavailable and in several cases, an embedded message was provided in lieu of an email address.
Please see below for a deep-dive look at my findings. All information is taken from the company website unless otherwise cited.
QUINCE (MEMBRILLO)
1. FRUSAN: " Frusan is a Chilean company that has taken its place as the country’s leading producer and exporter of fresh fruit."
Company Name: FRUTERA SAN FERNANDO
Physical address: Av. Presidente Riesco 5561, of 1301
Las Condes, Santiago - Chile
Email address: frusan@frusan.cl
Physical address: Alonso de Monroy 2677, 4th Floor,
Vitacura (7630438) Santiago, Chile.
3. AGRICOM: "AGRICOM was founded in 1980 by young chilean entrepeneur Rodrigo Barros who had the dream to produce and export the best chilean fruit to the world markets. Along these years AGRICOM has steadily grown to become one of Chile’s six biggest fresh fruit export companies."
Company Name: Agricom Ltda.
Physical address: AV. el glof 99, 3rd Flooras Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
Email address: agricom@agricom.cl
PERSIMMON (CAQUI)
1. SANTACRUZ: " It was founded in 1990 with the purpose of being a new alternative for the Chilean fruit industry."
2. COMFRUT: " COMFRUT is one of the largest Chilean fruit company, growing and packing fresh and frozen fruits."
Company Name: Comfrut Safety Always
Physical address: Eliodoro Yanez 2905, Santiago-Chile
Phone numbers: +56 2 3346088 / Fax: +56 2 2341102 (no mobile phone number published)
POSSIBLE CONTINUED RESEARCH
As mentioned earlier, in my exhaustive search for specific export/growers in Chile meeting your criteria, having found so few, I decided to investigate the global market activity of each.
For Quince, I found one report from 2016 citing that, "Turkey is the top producer of the fruit, growing roughly 26,500 acres. The United States grows between 180-300 acres of quince commercially. California produced approximately 205 tons of quince with a value of almost $440,000 in 2012." This information would goes far to explain the low activity between Chile and the U.S. The report goes on to confirm that the crop is only re-emerging in the U.S with still no data available concerning consumption. Looking back at 2011 I did see evidence Chilean exports of the fruit were once quite active, however current reports confirm, "light shipments have been reported however supplies are insufficient to quote." I used a USDA database to confirm that Quince imports to the U.S from Chile have significantly decreased to less than half of 2012 imports of the same.
Persimmon seems the stronger commodity of the two and yet I was only able to retrieve two companies export persimmon to U.S from Chile. Like quince, I found local production of persimmon is on the rise in the U.S, namely California, greatly decreasing the demand for importation. As well, Spain is gaining attention by becoming a dominate player in persimmon exportation. The article showcasing their efforts indicates there is little other competition in this space. While they currently export to Europe mainly, there is an ambition to reach all markets, with one exporter stating, “There is some fruit in Morocco and Italy but it’s not much competition. In other countries there aren’t many persimmons at the moment."
Finally, I found one of the oldest Chilean exporters of fresh fruit including persimmon, Aconex, declared bankruptcy in 2011. The fall of such a major player has surely influenced the decrease in Chilean export activity for persimmon.
In lieu of the above changes to both markets in the last few years, I have to suggestions for continued research:
-I would suggest a closer look at the emerging players for both quince and persimmon exportation. For example, Turkey for quince, and Spain for persimmon; the U.S for both.
-I would suggest a landscape overview of the Chile's current fresh fruit export market to determine if a new crop has risen at the fall of the others.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, after searching extensively through company and industry databases and market report, I was able to retrieve only five companies, in total, matching your criteria. I did learn that the Chilean export of quince has greatly reduced, and a major persimmon exporter has closed down. Furthermore, production of persimmon and quince in other countries continues to grow.
If you’d like to continue research on any of the other topics I’ve outlined above, just let us know. Thanks again for using Wonder!