Chile, 10 December 2014 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched aGreen Economy and Trade Opportunities Project (GE-TOP) in Chile to help develop eco-labelling in the national food and wine sector and identify market access opportunities and barriers for eco-labelled agriculture. This project is being carried out in cooperation with the Fundación Chile (FCh), and involves the expertise of various government departments, retailers and certification bodies. As part of the project, three national stakeholder workshops are held, involving key actors in the sustainable food and wine industry. The first of these took place in December 2014.
The Chilean government has recently committed to a National Green Growth Strategy (2014-2022), in order to promote economic growth and create jobs while protecting the environment and encouraging social equity. Based on the increasing demand for the validation of sustainability in the production process, voluntary standards and eco-labelling are considered to be a useful tool to increase sustainable exports. Chile unfortunately lacks a sustainability standard and label to improve the Green Economy performance of the food and wine sector and to signal these efforts to international markets and consumers. The overall objective of GE-TOP Chile is to assess how a national eco-labelling programme could bridge this gap, and to identify and inform related sustainable trade opportunities.
The Chilean food and wine sector has experienced constant growth over the past two decades, expanding by 239% since 2000 and reaching a financial volume of US$16.510 billion in 2013. Furthermore, the government plans to make Chile a top ten global food and wine exporter by 2015 (currently, Chile ranks 15th among global food and wine exporting countries). Sustainability is a key pillar of this agenda, mainly because of increasing international market requirements and the competitive advantage and added value that sustainable production yields for accessing new market segments. Despite awareness of the importance of sustainability, the lack of resources, expertise and capacities, particularly for small and medium sized companies, act as obstacles to a transition to a green economy.
