Driving southward from Santiago the harsh rectangles of skyscrapers give way to acres of apples, plums and grapes. Sparkling new packing plants, their driveways bordered with rosebushes, line the highway. In the foreground the familiar logos of Dole, Unifrutti and other food companies flash by. Chilean fruit now fills supermarket produce sections from Montreal to Monterrey. Massive growth in exports has made fruit a symbol of Chile's success.
Inflation is under control and foreign trade is now worth half the country's gross domestic product.
In the early 1980s, when authorities reduced customs barriers, imports rose astronomically. The economy boomed, then just as suddenly took a screaming nosedive. Companies started to fold. Wages plunged and one out of three workers went jobless. The Gross National Product dropped an excruciating 14 per cent.