Chile celebrates grape festival in Shanghai

French desserts made from Chilean grapes by La Fantasia's chef Louie Ye.[Photo by He Qi/chinadaily.com.cn]

The Table Grape Committee of the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX) celebrated the start of the Chilean grape season in China with a pop-up store event at the La Fantasia dessert cafe in Shanghai on March 8.

Themed "Color Up Your Life With Grapes from Chile", the event included an interactive grape-themed window decorating activity. La Fantasia was also decorated with trellises of green, red and black Chilean grapes.

Guests were served French desserts made from Chilean grapes by La Fantasia's chef Louie Ye.

Charif Christian Carvajal, marketing director of Europe and Asia regions of ASOEX, said: "Each season, Chilean farmers are introducing new seeded and seedless varieties from top global breeders. Grapes are a source of polyphenols, such as resveratrol, along with vitamin K, copper and various B vitamins."

Juan Jose Vidal Wood, Trade Commissioner at the Shanghai office of ProChile, said: "We call Chile a 'phytosanitary island' due to the high mountains of Patagonia to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, which have blocked the arrival of many of the pests and pathogens that exist in other grape growing regions around the world.

French desserts made from Chilean grapes by La Fantasia's chef Louie Ye.[Photo by He Qi/chinadaily.com.cn]

"Our country is home to many regions with the perfect sunny and arid conditions for producing high quality, sweet and crisp table grapes. Chile is therefore the top grower of table grapes in the southern hemisphere and the world, with almost 30 percent of Chile's fruit growing area dedicated to grapes," Wood added.

The Chilean table grape industry is export-focused and table grapes accounted for 24 percent of Chile's $5.21 billion worth of fresh fruit exports in 2017 and 2018 – the largest share among all types of fruit. By volume, these exports of table grapes amounted to 730,000 tons, with China receiving 118,000 tons, or 16.5 percent, of Chile's total table grape exports.

In 2018, Chile was the top supplier by value among all countries and regions of imported fresh fruit to China, according to statistics released last month by China Customs. The value of Chilean fresh fruit imported into China rose more than 10-fold over the course of 10 years, climbing from $168.2 million in 2009 to $1.7 billion in 2018.

"A large part of this enormous growth can be attributed to the 2005 Chile-China Free Trade Agreement, under which Chilean fresh fruits are imported into China with zero tariff, providing a win-win-win benefit to Chilean farmers, Chinese importers and Chinese consumers," said Wood.