Colombia has exported its first Hass avocados to Chile with debut shipment of 22 tons. 

The Chilean market has maintained its position as the world’s second largest consumer of avocados, only after Mexico, strengthening Colombia’s offer. 

Colombia has only four certified orchards, two of which belong to the multinational company Westfalia. This organization was in charge of making the first export to Chile and is very optimistic about meeting the demand from the end of January 2023 until March of the same year. 

Hass production in Chile has a deficit of between 35 and 40% of the total consumed in its domestic market. Therefore, it is expected that the Colombian fruit will supply this need, since these dates coincide with the Colombian harvest.

"Demand from the United States and Asia has increased. The idea is to maximize the potential of each market according to the commercial windows," said Carlos Echeverri, Commercial Manager of Westfalia Colombia.

“Chile has its window between January and March and Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and China are a great opportunity to diversify customers. We expect to export 700 containers of fruit by the end of 2023.”

Although the company was not forced to make large investments in its packing plants for this first export, Westfalia has been preparing to make improvements to its logistics chain, research and development in general. 

The organization is confident that the opening of markets such as Chile will attract the attention of growers to adopt the protocols and certificates to send fruit abroad and thus improve foreign exchange earnings for Colombia.