Chile: Kiwis, plums and grapes highest growth in shipments

According to the president of Fedefruta, Juan Carolus Brown, the Chilean fruit sector is getting ready for one of the best periods in the last four years. 

Producers will be favoured by the rising dollar, as it is currently at around 617 pesos, 85 pesos more than in the last 12 months, and will allow the sector to have higher returns, this with more favourable weather conditions will see a boost in production.

Thus, the sector estimates that this year the Chilean fruit exports will increase by 8.6% to a total of about $4.773 million dollars; an amount that would mark a record high for the agricultural sector and that would correspond to twice of what the sector shipped a decade ago.

According to estimates, the fruits that will have the highest growth are plums (97.9%), kiwi (90.5%), grapes (15%) and blueberries (11.2%). However, the increase in exports of these fruits is largely due to a recovery in production after the frosts in September 2013 that severely affected the sector and the higher international prices.

The president of the Chilean Exporters Association (Asoex), Ronald Bown, said the effects of the frost were still visible in the plum production and that some productive areas still had a lower crop load. He added that they expected to recover their productive potential, which is about 120,000 tons, by 2016.

Regarding kiwis, the union leader said the shipments had been declining in the past five years because of the plantations' low productivity following the frost of 2013. The potential export supply was of some 210,000 tons; an amount that, he noted, was impossible to achieve under current conditions.

Carolina Cruz, president of Uvanova, noted that the grape orchards affected by the frosts in 2013 didn't suffer major damage in 2014. "Overall, they responded well, there was a good yolk fertility. The sprouts were homogeneous and there was a high supply of clusters. In general there were no weather problems. Since we could select clusters we had good quality, sizes and weights" she said.

Cruz added that the IV Region was still marked by the drought so many people had abandoned their crops, while those who decided to continue planting obtained medium calibres.

Bown said the productive potential of the blueberry would be known once the young plantations, equivalent to a third of the blueberry productive surface, came into full production and the current phytosanitary barriers, which were activated by the effect of Lobesia plague botrana, are eliminated. "We must also consider that there are still some traces left of last season's frosts in some areas," he added.

In early November 2014 FEDEFRUTA estimated cherry exports would increase by 35.7% this year, ranging between 20 million and 22 million cases. However, the heavy rains in December affected the initial forecasts.

The meteorological event decreased this fruit's production between 15% and 20%. However, according to Antonio Walker, producer, exporter and director of FEDEFRUTA, it is likely that these losses won't be noticed in the final statistics because there are more cherries than what was estimated in November. "In talking with producers, the estimates made in late October were lower than what they actually had in the trees. The loss was real, but maybe it won't be noticeable because the forecasts were lower than what was really there," he said.

Brown added that they expected cherry shipments would increase by about 25% this year and range between 18 million and 20 million cases.

Expectations are that the country will export some 2.7 million tons of fruit this year, i.e. 14.6% more than last year.

The frosts that hit the south central part of the country in September 2013 caused the fruit sector to lose five hundred million dollars.

Below chart in Spanish: