The Dutch importer, Jaguar the Fresh Company, represented in South America by Cristóbal Valenzuela, Commercial Manager LATAM, of Jaguar the Fresh Company B.V., says that while Chile’s season was about two weeks late, they are doing their best to meet the high demand in Europe. “Effectively the Chilean blueberry season started with a big delay, more or less two weeks late in comparison with a “normal” season, especially for the earliest varieties. And if we go to the statistics, we can see that the volume loaded to North Europe from Chile, between weeks 47 to 52 is around 23% less volume than last year on the same date. According to that, the market nowadays is good, up until now, with higher prices than last year for sure.”
He says the origins they can see now in the markets is: “South Africa that has already finished, Morocco is going mostly to Asia and Russia, and Perú should stay in the market with arrivals until week 7 to 8 with low volumes. So, if you see the general picture, it looks like the market should remain with high prices and good movement. But, if you look at it more in detail, you can see that the volume from Chile is becoming extremely concentrated. According to the statistics of the Export Data, 70% of the Chilean volume loaded between weeks 47 and 52 going to North Europe, were loaded in weeks 51 and 52. This is due to different reasons, like the delay of the earliest varieties. This volume comes together with the varieties of middle season. Also due to strong seas, some vessels were not allowed to come into the port, so the containers were rolled over to the vessels of the coming weeks.”
Valenzuela says with all these factors put together it is difficult to predict the market. “We know there is less volume for the whole Chilean season, but we know also that the market will be under pressure for arrivals due to the high concentration of the volume, especially for weeks 3, 4, and 5. You must keep in mind also, that we are coming from the Peruvian season short on volume, so in the last period the lack of volume in the market and the high prices, also affected the demand.”
He says the hope is that Chile, in general, arrives with good quality, that will help to keep the good movement of the fruit and good prices. “We, as Jaguar, and together with our growers, are fully focused on the high-quality product, and we take care of the quality on every single container loaded. So we are confident that, like previous years, our quality and our sales strategy will be the key to keep a fast movement of the fruit and maintain the highest returns for our growers,” concludes Valenzuela.
For more information:
Cristóbal Valenzuela
Jaguar, the Fresh Company B.V.
Tel: +56 9 92237688
Email: [email protected]
www.jaguarthefreshcompany.com