The 2016 cherry campaign has come to an end in the vast majority of Argentina, and despite having had initial losses some producers achieved an average production increase of 15%. "We definitely had more volume than other years, despite the climate issues we experienced this year. The biggest problem we had was the saturation of the European and American markets," stated Matthias Notti, of Cerezas Argentinas.
The main reason for the oversupply of cherries in these markets was that Chile could not send the volumes it used to ship to Asia because it faced severe weather problems that accelerated the fruit harvest and had to export them to other markets. "The scenario in Chile complicated things for us, as they tried to send as many cherries as they could to Europe and the United States. This meant we had a bigger competition because they have more volume than us," the representative stated.
"The markets were filled with a never before seen volume of Chilean cherries, and when Chile floods the market prices fall significantly. This campaign our cherry had a higher quality, but having such low prices made it very difficult to differentiate ourselves in the market. So we ended the campaign a week earlier than expected and sold our product in alternative markets," Notti said.
It worth noting that the Argentinian company obtained its organic certification this year and was able to make its first shipments of organic cherries. "They were representative shipments, mainly to the United States, because the American consumer has an understanding of organic products and different supermarket shelves devoted for organic consumers. Our next target for the 2017 campaign is China," he said.
For more information:
MatÃas Notti
Cerezas Argentinas
T: + 54 911 6619 1007
