Ed Bedington
The varied flavours of Chile hit London this week as part of a Europe-wide campaign to promote food exports.
The showcase to promote products ranging from fresh wild mushrooms to meat and seafood was organised by ProChile.
The country, famous for its fruit and wine exports, is now hoping to widen its export portfolio, said Ronald Bown, president of the Asociacion de Exportadores de Chile.
"While fresh produce is an important part of our exports, we want to show people we are more than just fruit and wine."
Bown said that, with the recent free trade agreement between the European Union and Chile, the association was hoping to use the reputation gained from its current exports to pave the way into other areas, from dried fruit to goats cheese and extra virgin olive oil to beef.
He said there were also further opportunities in the fruit sector: "There's a lot of potential for berries ­ blueberries in particular. We expect to continue our growth in the UK, not only in our main products like apples and grapes, but we are also looking to broaden our participation across the whole market."
During the showcase, the Chilean industry was also given praise by Doug Henderson, chief executive of the UK's Fresh Produce Consortium who described the country as a world leader when it comes to fruit production and export.
Meanwhile, Grape producer Agricola Brown's marketing vice president Juan Brown said he was hoping to increase exports to the UK fivefold, from 100 tonnes to 500 tonnes,in the next couple of years.

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