As of July 2017, 2,041,787 tons of fruit were exported, including fresh fruits and nuts, a figure very similar to that of 2,049,625 tons exported in the same period of 2016. As of the seventh month of the year, shipments of fresh fruit decreased by 1.5%, while those of nuts increased by 49% in volume exported.
Nuts showed the best performance, rising 55%, from 37,402 tonnes exported to July 2016 between walnuts with and without shell to 58,334 tonnes exported between January and July 2017. Meanwhile, the largest decline was in cherries that fell 37.8%, from 60,917 tonnes exported to 37,914 tonnes exported in the same period of 2017. The value in cherries fell by a similar proportion, 38.3%, while the value of nuts increased slightly more than double, from US $ 137.91 million to US $ 279.28 million.
According to the Bureau of Agricultural Studies and Policies (Odepa), the difference in cherries is due to a crop advance. When comparing exports by season, the volume exported in the 2015/16 season was 90,290 tons while in the 2016/17 season it was 101,292 tons. The same happened with the value exported which went from US $ 652, 86 million to US $ 687.78 million exported each season, respectively.
The average price of export during the cherry season reached its maximum in shipments to France and Holland at US $ 10.93 and $ 10.57 per kilo, respectively. Shipments to China, the largest importer of Chilean fruit, averaged US $ 7.62 per kilo, up from US $ 7.35 per kilo last season.
In the case of nuts, the average price reached US $ 5.01 per kilo of walnut in shells in Holland followed by US $ 4.28 per kilo to Brazil, US $ 4.16 to Germany, US $ 4.15 a Ecuador, US $ 3.93 to Spain and US $ 3.88 per kilo of walnut in shell sent to China. Price drops were only seen in shipments to the Netherlands that went from a US $ 5.88 average per kilo during the 2016/17 season, to US $ 5.01 this season, and in France, where the price went from US $ 7.63 to US $ 3.88 per kilo.
Source: mundomaritimo.cl