Today was pretty eventful. We made our first visit to Universidad del Desarrollo. The campus is set in what looks to me like a surprisingly upscale neighbourhood with a beautiful view of the Andes in the distance. The buildings themselves are not really very pretty to look at; they kind of remind me of my high school. But, they ARE very strong against earthquakes, which I guess is the most important thing. Their medical school is one of the best in the nation. The Vice President welcomed us. He was very informative and entertaining. The school was only established in 1990, which means it is 21 years old. That is really young, but they seem to have created a great reputation for themselves already! The founders of the school are all over-achievers – two have even run for the office of President, one losing by only 2%!
The V.P. also talked to us about the earthquake and tsunami, and how the people of Chile were not warned in time. It appears that many lives could have been saved from the tsunami by evacuation to higher grounds but the people were not warned about it.
We then took long drives in the bus to visit three sites – ASOEX, COMEXPORT and USDA.
ASOEX is the fresh fruit association of Chile. They do the main research work behind fruit export, which forms a huge fraction of Chilean exports. They update the exporters on things like certifications required by specific countries, the amount and type of fruit exported everywhere, and such. They also do a lot of PR events to help promote Chile as a reliable fruit exporter. In the fresh fruit industry, reliability is a big part of being a good exporting nation, and fortunately Chile is considered to be one of the most reliable exporters.
COMEXPORT is one of the exporting companies for fresh fruit. We went to their plant and it was really interesting to see how they did everything from choosing the fruits, to making sure that the fruit was of a certain grade and met the requirements of the country that it was being exported to. The fruits are cooled to zero degrees centigrade approximately to make them last longer through the months. Fruits are separated according to sizes and boxed. They are then packed and samples are sent to the USDA for inspection.
USDA is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and its main function is to ensure that the fruits are free of harmful pesticides and bugs, and that it meets all the requirements of the United States. Randomly selected crates from the different exporters are checked everyday, and given a stamp of approval if they pass inspection. As many as 3500 crates are brought in every day to the USDA.
The fruit industry was extremely interesting to learn about and great to actually see up close.
Got back home to finally be able to fix my internet so I can get it in my room! Yay good days!
Time for bed now.
¡Hasta Mañana!
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