Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia have been the new destinations visited by a delegation organized by Chile Prunes, attended by representatives of Good Valley, Onizzo, Pacific Nut, Prunesco, Superfruit, Frutexsa and Surnat.
“It was a tour of accomplished goals and learnings, for the first time we organized a group of 7 partners to destinations that had not been visited as a delegation. Countries that traditionally use prunes as a snack, in their typical kitchen or as input for other processes. It also helped us establish the first contacts for future business,” says María Paz Soto, Chile’s prunes leader.
Indeed, Andrés Tagle, of Superfruit, points out that the objectives were fully met, by joining clients on business wheels coordinated by local Chambers of Commerce where new prospects could be known, allowing new business to be done. From the same idea, Bruno Ceroni of Good Valley, expresses that the objective was fulfilled by meeting new customers, markets, understanding their requirements and contacting importers; we also had a business wheel with good prospects and prospects.”
This type of tour has been a challenge this year for Chile Prunes, although supported by the financing and valuable advice of ProChile, this year we have visited mostly markets that do not have a Commercial Office of ProChile which has made it more challenging to materialize the missions, but more satisfactory the results., adds María Paz Soto.
Agustín Marín, from Onizzo, adds that they were able to know the interest of nations, such as Belarus, by small calibers without expensive. This country and Romania are indirectly reached with prunes, usually use bridge countries like Lithuania and Poland, “so getting to the end customer is obviously a step further. We had the opportunity to join, in addition, with well-known customers from Lithuania and Latvia, and to know their interests and to talk about the markets.”
In short, it sought to “make an information survey of all the countries we visited to see if they were actually buying prunes and if it gives us the business (prices and calibers) to work with them”, says Pedro Pablo Aspillaga, of Surnat. He adds that they had the opportunity to meet several large importers, who manage the market in much of each country, managing to gather key information to understand the industry and to be able to close businesses.
Interesting to highlight the actions in Belarus and Lithuania. In the first, management was coordinated with the Chamber of Commerce in Minsk, where they had a presentation from each country, and then B2B sessions in which Chilean exporters met with several companies that attended the event.
Belarus was a good country in terms of the number of companies, and in Lithuania although they were less in quantity were just the companies that had to be, says Juan Widmer, of Pacific Nut, has been a good instance in creating relationships with them and talking more thoroughly in business.
In Latvia, Aspillaga says, “we also worked supported by the Chamber of Commerce, it was the same modality as in Belarus but focused on bilateral meetings, serving to build relations and talk more landed on businesses.”
