IFU SGF Latin America Tour 2016
IFU and SGF International e.V. have jointly organized five seminars for the fruit and vegetable juice industry in Latin America.
The targets were:
getting in touch with existent members,
finding new members and
networking with juice producers, processors and the industry in Latin America.
The countries we have visited during this tour were Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico.
Argentina:
IFU`s tour started on March 4th, when we had the chance to visit the nursery and the plant of Citromax in Tucuman, Argentina. The discussions with the plant managers helped us to see what we should focus on during the seminar.
On March 7th, we had our first seminar in San Miguel de Tucuman. Luckily, we got invited from our dear friend and juice colleague Estela from U-Citrus, one of IFU`s new members, to do some sightseeing the day before – so we were sure to be all set for the first and biggest seminar of our tour!
At the seminar in Argentina, more than 50 participants listened to the opening speech of Mr. Juan Luis Fernández, Minister of Production Development in the province of Tucuman.
All seminars based on the following presentations:
IFU: recent projects, world juice days, how members can benefit from the global association and new developments of IFU methods
SGF: raw material control and certification processes
Global GAP and Rainforest Alliance: certification methods and processes
John Bean Technologies (JBT) and Bucher Unipektin: how to generate value of by-products
In addition, experts have addressed local issues, like Dr. Dirceu Mattos in Campinas who gave an interesting lecture about HLB in Brazil.
We thank our sponsors SIG Combibloc, JBT, Bucher Unipektin and Newbell, who made this tour and especially the simultaneous translation from English to Spanish or Portuguese possible.
Brazil:
The seminar on March 8th in Campinas, Brazil, turned out very well, as well. Unfortunately, we didn`t have any time to visit plants in or around Campinas, but we made sure to try BRazilian beef and chicken and one or two of the famous Caipirinhas
Ecuador:
Only 2 days later, on March 11th, we had our third seminar in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The opening was done by the Director of the Agroindustry in Guayaquil, Ms. Tamara Tapia, and all presentations were followed by vivid discussions. The day after, we were invited by two companies to see their plants. Quicornac picked us up in the morning: on the way to their plant, we stopped at Nobol, a village close to Guayaquil, to see the corpse of Santa Narcisa de Jesus and to enjoy a fresh coconut.
Strenghtened, we continued our way to Vínces to visit Quicornac. Luckily, passion fruit was processed on this day, so we got the full experience – and of course a glass of excellent passion fruit juice.
After a nice lunch with local specialities, we returned to Guayaquil, to be picked up by Tropifrutas/Passina. In their plant, we could watch the processing of bananas and even try various kinds of banana puree. Yummy!
Costa Rica:
On Sunday, it was time to leave Ecuador and continue to Costa Rica, where we shall had our next stop.
The day before the seminar, we had the chance to visit the plant of Gerber Ingredients in San Jose, where bananas were processed, as well, We glanced with some knowledge about banana and had another tasting session… yummy, again!
The trip to Tropical Paradise in the afternoon took a little more time, as we had to go up North for approx. 2.5 hours, but the landscape – and of course the plant – was worth it.
We learned about pineapple processing and IQF (Individual Quick Freezing) and got to know some of Tropical Paradise`s managers, who we saw the next day again, at the seminar.
Close to the plant, on our way back, we even had time to say Hi to some Iguanas.
The seminar in San José, Costa Rica, on March 15th was a great success, as well – and we were happy to welcome visitors from Nicaragua, too. A big thank you goes to Labmictrotec, who organized a „wine and cheese“ evening after the seminar to wrap up the seminar and give the participants even more chance to network and discuss issues raised during the day.
Mexico:
The next day we traveled to Veracruz, Mexico, our final stop. As we made ourselves comfortable with the city, we got the chance to enjoy the last minutes of a dance competition of local dancing schools.
In Veracruz, wee had our fifth and last seminar on March 17th. In addition to the regular presentations, the new SGF auditor assigned for Mexico, Mrs. Maria del Rocio Macias Muñoz, explained in details how the process for an SGF audit works.
Altogether, and thanks to the great organization from SGF, the tour was a big success for IFU: we got in deep touch with existing members and could attract potential new members, discussed and presented the IFU methods and their updates and of course enhanced the collaboration with SGF. We are already working on plans for the next tour in 2017 and look forward to get a helping hand by our members. We are lucky for being able to say: we found some new juice friends!
from our members!
