This growth is the result of planting new varieties and the acreage that is coming into production. In this regard, Cristián Tagle, president of the Cherry Committee at ASOEX, said: "The challenges for next season will be to protect the plantations from spring rainfall, which will entail a large investment, as well as to improve logistics for export to Far Eastern markets and to advance in the diversification and opening of new markets, such as Korea and Japan. The latter recently authorised the entry of Chilean cherries without fumigation, using the procedure called System Approach."
The new varieties introduced represent almost 50% of the export volume, with increases in the current season of between 80% and 400%. The most noteworthy varieties are the Lapins, Royal Dawn, Skeena, Santina, Regina and Sweet Heart. Meanwhile, the traditional variety Bing, which in the 2009-2010 season represented 87% of the shipments, today only accounts for 48%.
Regarding destination markets, the main client for Chilean cherries was again Asia, with 83% of the total (mainly China, with 76.3%); this is an increase of 9% compared to the previous campaign. If we go back 10 seasons (2004-2005), Asia only accounted for 23% of the exports, which shows that, in only a decade, its market share has increased by 60 percentage points.
Opposite is the case of the second destination for Chilean cherries: the United States, which closed this 2014-2015 season with a 9% share, the lowest since the fruit's exports to this market started. Worthy to note is that, a decade ago, the U.S. absorbed 45% of all Chilean cherry exports. Europe's case is similar; this campaign, it absorbed only 3.7% of the exports, the lowest in recent years.
In the fiscal year 2014-2015, all producing regions, except for Valparaiso, recorded an increase in the volume of exports compared to the 2013-2014 season. Region VI was again the largest exporter, with 52,828 tonnes and a 69% increase compared to last season. Region VII followed, with 33,182 tonnes (+20%). These two regions accounted for 87% of the country's total export volume.
In the 2014-2015 season, a total of 198 companies exported cherries, compared to the 178 of the previous campaign.