International Women's Day Event Urges Women to "Color Up Your Life With Grapes from Chile"

The Table Grape Committee of the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX) on March 8 in Shanghai celebrated International Women’s Day and the start of the Chilean grape season in China with a flash store event at the Fengshengli branch of the celebrated La Fantasia dessert café.

Held under the theme of “Color Up Your Life With Grapes from Chile,” the event kicked off with a Chilean grape season launch ribbon cutting ceremony featuring: Juan José Vidal Wood, Trade Commissioner at the Shanghai office of ProChile; Charif Christian Carvajal, Marketing Director, Europe and Asia, of ASOEX; Amy Lin, owner of La Fantasia; and Eko Wang, founder of Shanghai-based luxury nail polish brand Color Mad.

The International Women’s Day Flash Store event included special touches just for women, such as an interactive grape-themed window decorating activity and nail treatments from Color Mad. The nail polish colors were selected by Color Mad to match the colors of the Chilean grapes offered to guests at the event. La Fantasia was also decorated under a grape theme—with trellises of Chilean green, red and black Chilean grapes hanging long and thin, just like the nation of Chile. Creative French desserts made from Chilean grapes by La Fantasia’s chef Louie Ye delighted guests’ taste buds and rounded out the flash store’s “colorful” grape atmosphere.

“Today’s celebration of International Women’s Day was part of the Grapes from Chile 2019 season promotional campaign for table grapes in China,” said Charif Christian Carvajal. “This campaign is being conducted under the theme of, ‘Color Up Your Life with Grapes from Chile,’ which is a reference to the diverse colors and varieties of grapes grown in Chile.”

Said Amy Lin, “As a woman, I was thrilled to host Grapes from Chile for International Women’s Day at La Fantasia. The theme of coloring up our lives was a perfect match for celebrating the diversity and colorful lives of Chinese women, who are more independent than ever and play a leading role in both their families and society.”

Added Charif Christian Carvajal, “We would like to emphasize the role that our Chilean table grapes can play in adding even more color to women’s lives. Each season, Chilean farmers are introducing new seeded and seedless varieties from top global breeders. Grapes are a source of polyphenols, such as resveratrol, along with vitamin K, copper and various B vitamins.”

“We call Chile a ‘phytosanitary island’ due to the high mountains of Patagonia to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, which have blocked the arrival of many of the pests and pathogens that exist in other grape growing regions around the world,” said Juan José Vidal Wood. “Our country is home to many regions with the perfect sunny and arid conditions for producing high quality, sweet and crisp table grapes. Chile is therefore the top grower of table grapes in the southern hemisphere and the world, with almost 30% of Chile’s fruit growing area dedicated to grapes.”

The Chilean table grape industry is export-focused and table grapes accounted for 24% of Chile’s $5.21 billion worth of fresh fruit exports in 2017/18—the largest share among all types of fruit. By volume, these exports of table grapes added up to 730 thousand tons, with China receiving 118 thousand tons, or 16.5%, of Chile’s total table grape exports.

In 2018, Chile was once again the top supplier by value among all countries and regions of imported fresh fruit to China, according to statistics released last month by China Customs. The value of Chilean fresh fruit imported into China rose more than 10-fold over the course of ten years, climbing from $168.2 million in 2009 to $1.7 billion in 2018.

“A large part of this enormous growth can be attributed to the 2005 Chile-China Free Trade Agreement, under which Chilean fresh fruits are imported into China with zero tariff, providing a win-win-win benefit to Chilean farmers, Chinese importers and Chinese consumers,” said Juan José Vidal Wood.

Images: ASOEX