While Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fruittrade Latin America took place in Santiago last week, it wasn't just Chileans who were pitching their credentials to buyers from around the world. One nation with a particularly strong presence was Argentina, with a delegation that also included the Argentine Agrifood Export Promotion Project (ProArgex). ProArgex representative Mariana Suárez explained the initiative in greater depth.

"We are a promotion project for exporting foods with added value, including fruits and not commodities, nor beef, because beef has its own export promotion institute," Suárez said.

Mariana Suarez.

"Here we have an institutional stand and there are also eight Argentine fruit companies; all from Mendoza and one from Río Negro, which have come to promote their local products - fruits like fresh pears and grapes."

The project, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing (MINAGRI), is financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

"In general we are helping small and medium-sized companies. We travel to all the fairs around the world with different products, and we conduct business rounds and missions to get contacts and promote Argentine products.

"This is a project that lasts three years. We are in the second phase as 'ProArgex 2', which will finish in 2015.

"We are helping to finance everything that is participation in fairs, whether it be contracting the floors, building the stand, so that the companies can come and participate directly in the event."

ProArgex conducts half-year analyses about how participating companies have gone and their returns gained from such trade fairs.

The representative was unsure whether there would be a new phase for the organization.

"Normally for projects that are like this - short-term and financed by the IDB - a lot of the time the idea is that they be a type of 'launch of support' that the Ministry of Agriculture should reabsorb."

www.freshfruitportal.com