Covid infections among shipboard personnel threaten Chilean export campaign

Ronald Bown Fernández, President of the Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile (ASOEX), expressed his concern about the recent infections of Covid-19 registered in ships arriving in the Valparaíso Region. According to current regulations, these ships cannot be docked at the ports.

The ongoing situation could spark chaos in the ports, impacting the mobilization of import and export cargo. Considering the upcoming Chinese New year, which is the peaking term for Chilean cherry supplies to China, this may lead to significant losses for the entire sector.

According to Bown, in the last few days, 4 ships have had to remain on tour without being able to enter the ports. In these ships, at least 1 case of Covid contagion was confirmed, which caused these vessels to be unable to carry out the corresponding loading and unloading operations.

Due to this, the union made a call to the maritime and health authorities of Chile, so that, in a quick way, they manage to agree on a protocol to handle the current situation, which would allow the implementation of isolation regulations for infected people, carry out the necessary sanitization of the ship and other measures that guarantee the normal performance of the functions of Chilean navy personnel and port workers.