The report of a business trip in Chile(February 6th, 2007)

Keigo Nakamura
(Translated by Mariko Wada)
Thank you very much for your usual treatment and cooperation.
I would like to report about a business trip in Chile, lily bulbs production field of the Southern hemisphere (SH) from 21th to 28th January, that I visited in all of production companies which have possibility of export to Japan ,
For your information, we put a lot of pictures which were taken there on this web site, please look at that. 。

１．The acreage of production

By our research, the acreage of 2006/07 crop is 392ha which is about 50ha more than last year (it is about 14.5% up)
Telling it in the other report, the acreage of 2007 in NZ is 166ha which is about 40ha more than last year, so the acreage in Chile is about 70% in the Southern hemisphere.(for your information, see the report of a business trip in NZ .January 25th)

As specified below, the acreage for planting in Chile has increased over 30% every year, but we can analyze that the increasing tendency has slowed down from this year.

	２００４	２００５	２００６	２００７
Total acreage (Approx.)	１７０	２５０	３４２．５	３９２
Difference from last year	－	４７％	３７％	１５．５％

Checking at each company, both Southern Bulb Co., Ltd. and Sun & Breeze have increased, and also both of their headquarters are bulb (cut flower) production company in the Netherlands.
On the other hand, Chile Bollen S.A. and Piga are almost same as last year. Sone and Sun Harvest have decreased. These companies are strongly influenced by the opinion of bulb export companies (Piga has sales function by themselves), and while the new varieties are noticeably increasing, they drastically decrease the acreage for unpopular variety in the world. For example, Sone has stopped the production of Geneve (too much double noses), Medusa (easy to rot), Anais Anais (unpopular) etc, and also they consider decrease or stop that are Soldera, Rousillon, Ascari, Lombardia, Rimini, Simplon etc. from next year.
It takes a year to stop production. Although new production takes many years to be certain acreage. So, decrease in total may happen.

２．The climate of Chile & the growth of bulb

The production field of Chile is about 400 km away from North and South, and the climate depends on area(seaside, mountain side etc.) Especially Los Angels district which is little far to North is a different (warm) climate to other area, and up to now this year’s climate is just like common year.
General climate of Chile in 06/07 is a bit cool as NZ. September & October which are　planting season is temporarily a lot of rain in each area, and when the first middle growth comes it seems to be usual or little cooler than common year. In the late December which is disbudding season, there was much more rain than common year and the temperature was also low.

From this January, the climate has recovered and fine. When we visited there, the highest temperature was unstable, one day was hot at 27℃, the next day was cool at 22 ℃, we felt the temperature difference related by the direction of wind and so on. But the lowest temperature was stabilized and comparatively warm, the average of temperature may be common.
We could have cooperation with all of the production company, saw over 350 varieties and lots, and checked bulbs condition & enlargement with doing trial digging in over 85 which mainly varieties for Japan market (the number of that is a quarter of all of research). Thank you for your kind cooperation.
Overall, the field condition was good, but the color of leaves seemed to be little pale. The length of stem & growth were average year level, the speed of growth was little later than common year. When we visited in week 4, there was the final stage of disbudding.
The enlargement of bulbs is different in each production area. In the northernmost Los Angeles area, bulbs already enlarged from the planting size to one and a half times(about 3cm) in average.
In state of Los Lagos in the center(Valdivia, Rio Bueno、Lago Lanco area) the enlargement of bulbs is different even in same field by planting time, but the enlargement is 0~1.5 size(about 0~3cm) and some bulbs which are planted later had not started.
In state of Osorno in South area of production (Puyehue,Osorno, Purranque, Frutillar), we could not see any enlargement at the moment.
Usually the enlargements of bulbs really begin after disbudding, the present enlargement is one of reference and we would like to watch carefully the growth to future climate that becomes important.

３．Each company condition(the acreage is including scaling)

●Sun harvest Co., Ltd. : the acreage is over 20ha. There is in Los Angels district.
They produce Zodiac, Nairobi, Sapporo, Cordoba and so on. And also they have contract production with bulb producers & cut flower producers in the Netherlands.

●Sone Co., Ltd. : the acreage is over 100ha. There is in Valdivia district
Total acreage has decreased than last year, but they bought a license of new varieties and planning to increase production. They try to be efficient and reinforce sales by decreasing varieties which are unpopularity & have some problems in production by variety characters. And also they have started production of LA & Vletter’s new varieties by their own treatment.

●Chile Bollen Co., Ltd. : the acreage is over 15ha. There is in Rio Bueno district.
They mainly contract with Verdegaal Co., Ltd. in the Netherlands. Their variety assortments (Starclass,Canada etc.) seem to depend on Export Company’s opinion.

●Piga Co., Ltd. : the acreage is over 15ha. There is in Lago Ranco district.
The acreage for planting is almost same as last year. They need to have a long-term production plan with timing to renew for Planting Material of present production varieties etc.

●Southern Bulb Co., Ltd. : The acreage is over 150ha.There are in Puyehue, Osorno, Rio Bueno, Frutillar, Los Angeles district.
They have had the largest production acreage in SH. For spreading growth risk, they decrease the proportion of production in Puyehue that their head office is located and have widely many production fields from Los Angeles in the North to Frutillar in the South. They choose a best variety for each field, we could see production conditions and research assortment in each district, it is a big result in this business trip.
And also, a new cooling storage is under construction, preparing for increasing acreage.

●Sun & Breeze Co., Ltd : The acreage is over 30ha. There is in Purranque district.
They have productions of Mark Lilys variety (Robina, Willeke Alberti etc.) by contracting with Wagenaar Co., Ltd. which is bulbs production company in the Netherlands. And also they have increased varieties which are contracted with cut flower producers in the Netherlands, their increase of acreage in last year is over 60%, which is the highest in SH in this year.

?Sun harvest Co., Ltd.

Yelloween 1	Yelloween 2	Sapporo 1	Sapporo 2	Starfighter	Zodiac 1

Zodiac 2	Nairobi	Nairobi field	Marco Polo	Rialto

Sone Co., Ltd.

Casa Blanca	Casa Blanca	Cavalese	Courier	Corso	Santander	Cherbourg

Siberia	Siberia	Siberia	Soldera	Sorbonne	Sorbonne	Sorbonne

Sorbonne	Sorbonne	Tiber	Tiber	Valparaiso	Belladonna	Marco Polo

Marco Polo	Merostar	Montezuma	Rousillon	Lombardia	LA hybrid	Disbudding machine (nearly finished)

Chile Bollen Co., Ltd.

Conca D’or	Tiber	Manissa	Lombardia	scales field

Piga Co., Ltd.

Casa Blanda	Siberia	Siberia	Marco Polo	Marco Polo

Southern Bulb Co., Ltd.
■ Osorno district ■

Yelloween	Yelloween	Willeke Alberti	Casa Blanca	Crystal Star	Siberia	Siberia

Siberia	Siberia	Simplon	Stargazer	Sorbonne	Sorbonne	Sorbonne

Sorbonne	Tiber	Newton	Nova Zembla	Nova Zembla	White Lion	Manissa

Manissa	Marco Polo	Merostar	Merostar	La Mancha	Rialto	Rialto

Le Reve	new warehouse will be there