Wines
Enotourism
Gastronomy
Eight vineyards and peasant businesses from the Itata Valley have begun a commercial operation destined for China, marking a concrete step in opening new markets for the region's wine-growing industry.
The initiative includes sending bottled and bulk wine, and has the support of INDAP Ñuble for their commercial and logistical articulation, as part of ongoing work with Family Farming in the valley to strengthen their production and expand their marketing opportunities.
In the first stage, Adolfo Lagos Moreno, Vinos de Patio SpA., Cooperativa MOSCIN Ltda., Agrícola La Magdalena Ltda. and Genial Wines Ltda., from Coelemu; Bernardo Cortez Molina, from Portezuelo; and Joel Neira Fuentealba, from Ránquil, completed the shipment of 17,000 bottles of wine, while the cooperative COOVICEN, from Quillón, is progressing with the dispatch of 60,000 litres of bulk wine.
“We hope to reach a successful conclusion and that the Chinese will like our wines, enabling us to achieve larger exports, because this is a showcase to see how we do. The idea is to make the products of the Itata Valley known and to continue upholding Chilean viticulture,” highlighted Joel Neira, from the Piedras del Encanto winery.
The operation is the result of a process that Family Peasant Agriculture in the Itata Valley has been driving for years to move from production in the vineyard and winery towards international market sales.
Itati's courage and identity
Along this path, the territory has strengthened its productive capabilities, its organisation, and its commercial offering, adding value to a wine industry with a strong local identity and peasant roots.
The Acting Regional Director of INDAP Ñuble, Claudia Parra, highlighted that “this is an important boost for Family Farming in our region and the Itata Valley. Here, we have made various instruments available to our viticulturist users to finance machinery, oenological equipment, technical advice programmes, economic associativity, a commercial manager in China, participation in international fairs and events, in addition to professional support in export logistics, in order to transform a great product like grapes into wine with ideal organoleptic qualities to be able to carry out this export process”.
For his part, the Undersecretary of Agriculture, Francesco Venezian, highlighted during his visit to the producers that “we are already thinking, not only about this first shipment, but about how we reach different countries in Europe and the United States, working together and complying with the requirements of these international markets. And there we have to give a push together with ProChile.”.
The Ñuble Regional Minister of Agriculture, Juan Luis Enríquez, also emphasised that “from the Ministry of Agriculture we are working to ensure that the greatest quantity of grapes produced by farmers in the Itata Valley is vinified in the region and to seek new alternatives for the use of grapes in order to strengthen the economic security of the region.”.
China is emerging today as a concrete opportunity for Chilean wine, and the Itata Valley arrives on that stage with a more solid foundation: better quality, greater diversification, and a sector that has been gaining organisation and commercial capacity.
This tour is what today allows a territory with its own wine-making identity not only to participate in promotional spaces but also to begin to finalise operations in one of the industry's most relevant markets.
