In the first week of the year, Chile exported 8.032 tons of blueberries of which 406 tons were organic. The Chilean Blueberry Committee who published the weekly report mentions: “This volume was higher than the projected 6,200 tons and corresponds to an expression of how firm and friendly the climate is in the regions of greatest activity, regarding the development of the fruit.”
It is mentioned as well that there has been some rainfall recently in the Southern regions, which interrupted the harvesting. However, according to the committee it has had little impact on the volumes exported as these regions aren´t fully active yet. “The southern zone will have greater participation in the harvests from the end of January onwards, where it will have to be monitored because there is a probability of rains that could affect the harvests.”
Peak
From the statistics can be seen that up till week 1, the export volumes have been over 8.000 tons. As well the that where the full season of Chile is evident and unlike previous seasons, the fluidity observed in the processes and the good quality of the fruit, have also helped in the markets to flow.”
It is published that the cumulative exports of this season are divided between the several export destinations at 58% to the US (including Canada), 25% to Europe and 17% to the Far East. The committee concludes: “The next few weeks we will continue to see high volumes of dispatches, but the big peak has already passed. The second week of February would begin the decline in volumes exported by Chile.”
From the statistics it can be seen that the season of this year is very different from last year. For example the total amount of tons export in the previous season up to week 1, were 70.787 tons compared to a total of 54.658 this year. In addition, it is written in the report that only 17% of the total export was to the Far East till week 1. However, the table above shows that even though this number seems low, it it´s a significant increase compared to previous seasons.