Unique Collaboration Bears Fruit at Seminar

While fruit exporters understand that fumigators provide a service that is crucial to protecting the quality and maintaining the value of fruit, they don’t often partner to improve the journey of the fruit to market. But that is exactly what happened when the Exporters Association of Chile A.G. (ASOEX) invited Royal Fumigation to co-present Uva de mesa, a two-day seminar that focused on table grapes, Chile’s No. 1 fruit export.

Royal Fumigation, a member of The Royal Group, New Castle, Del., collaborated with growers, exporters, consultants and representatives of ASOEX for a year and a half to create a seminar that focused on the technical and commercial aspects of the table grape industry. The seminar, which was held Aug. 5 and 6 in Santiago de Chile, drew more than 600 attendees.

According to Roy Richardson, president of The Royal Group, Chile’s collaborative efforts with Royal and others in the fruit export business go a long way in helping the industry achieve commercial success through higher quality standards on a global scale.

"Collaboration often inspires progress. By keeping channels of communication open, we bring about advances in the industry that everyone benefits from," Richardson said.

Chile’s input has been significant in helping Royal create better ways to manage the cold chain via Royal’s RapidCool process, which more efficiently and effectively controls the temperature of the fruit after fumigation, Richardson said. "For RapidCool to be most effective, Royal’s communications with its Chilean contacts begin before the fruit arrives in port, and it continues through unloading, fumigation and post-fumigation."

Anne Bookout, Royal’s vice president and general counsel, presented a technical session that introduced RapidCool to the Chilean fruit industry.

At the close of the seminar, Ronald Bown, chairman of the board of ASOEX, presented Richardson and Bookout with awards for outstanding collaboration in developing and co-sponsoring Uva de mesa. They received a set of elaborately designed silver spurs, awards of great honor in Chile.

The Royal Group, which is comprised of Royal Pest Management, Royal Fumigation and Royal Lawn Service, is based in New Castle, Del. It fumigates more than half the Chilean fruit that arrives on the eastern coast of the United States each winter.