b'General Manager at Curimapu Export inmove between regions as needed with Chilln, Chile. In late October 2020, hespecial permits, using social distancing reported that the seed import is almostand masks. With respect to this, BASF finished, most of the fields are planted andlocal team members are visiting the fields, everything was done properly. taking notes, videos or pictures, explains Like all other similar companies,lia de Domnech, BASF global head of Curimapu is providing digital crop updatescommunications for vegetable seeds.to its clients until entry into the country is possible, but also perhaps for the fore- WILL DIGITAL UPDATES seeable future. In Curimapus case, theseCONTINUE?updates are offered through a new onlineIts anyones guess how much the 2021/2022 platform that the staff began to developcounter season in Chile will resemble the last March. Customers can login and checkone happening now. Will company travel on pictures and videos of each field takengo back to the way it was in years past or at the ground level and with a drone.will companies rely on online updates of Besides this, we also send a weeklytheir crops going forward? report of each field with all the informa- Kevin McNaughton, production man-tion and pictures, explained de la Sotta.ager at Alberta, Canada-based HyTech Last season, we had started a pilot pro- Production (which has had a subsidiary ject and this season we are also runningbusiness in Chile since 2006), notes that all of our fields with a satellite monitoringour customers trust us but they value platform. In this way, our farmers, fieldseeing the fields for themselves. In the workers and customers can check byfuture, once travel is back to normal, I themselves the vigor index of each fieldthink our customers will want to resume during all seasons, checking all develop- Counter season seed production in lettuce. trips to Chile. Ag people always like to mental stages, etc. We have also improvedSource: BASF have their boots on the ground. We will our information system in order to givehave to see how much value we get from our customers full transparency and thedrone and satellite imagery as the season most updated information. during the first few weeks of the pan- progresses.Bayer also reports that operations indemic, but Charme says regulators, part- McNaughton notes that with drone the counter season are going smoothly inners and vendors adapted quickly. A veryand possibly satellite imagery, and with Chile this year. Our field and site opera- important tool in this arena has been theinternet bandwidth growing and allowing tions required some extra resources anddigitalization of processes, documents andlonger videos to be shared, HyTech may adjustments, but overall, we were able toauthorizations, something that will remainre-think how it operates in Chile in the keep lead times and efficiencies, reportswith us, he says. Besides [all this], Id sayfuture. A lot of that is because we have Yuri Charme, Bayers head of productintense and systematic coordination in thetrusted, experienced employees, he says. supply for Latin American Vegetables,whole internal and external supply chain,However, there will never be a substitute Seeds and Chile Row Crops. It was abso- more than usual, was fundamental. Thisfor physically being in the field.lutely key to empower people to look forallowed anticipation of potential scenarios creative solutions and make fast decisionsso that we were ready to apply action plansIf you have tips or stories to share to adapt to new situations. to overcome situations. about your counter-season experi-Some challenges in phytosanitary orBASFs experience has also beenence during the COVID-19 pandemic, customs clearance and air cargo availa- smooth. Its teams in Chile, as with thosewe would like to hear from you. Please bility delayed some business operationsat other firms, have been permitted toemail mbruins@seedworldgroup.comCorn seed production field. Source: CISEUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 31'