Despite the drought and a weak European market, Chilean exporters are gaining ground in Asia, the Far East and Latin America.
A "regular" season is what the domestic fruit industry is currently experiencing. Thus, table grapes, plums, blueberries, nectarines, cherries and peach shipments add up to 1,136,000 tons, according to data from Expordata and Fruit Exporters Association of Chile (Asoex), ie, have sent 46,000 tons less compared to the previous same season.
Christian Allende, senior partner of Agricola La Hornilla and the new president of the
National Federation of Fruit Producers (Fedefruta), commented that "exports from
the first week of May, show a 3% decline compared to the same period of the
previous year, a figure that could be reflected at the end of the season."
The entrepreneur attributes these losses to "climatic factors that influenced a
restriction in the availability of water, affecting the color and sizes of the fruit."
A figure quite similar with respect to the general downturn in shipments, which
Unifrutti internally handles, because according to German Illanes business manager of the company, "So far it has been a good season. Exports to date have been very
Similar to 2011, for now 1% to 2% less," he explains.
Redirection
Due to the fragility that the European economy has shown in recent times,
Chilean exporters have had to redirect and strengthen trade ties with other parts of the world, without neglecting the old continent, which is still a major purchaser of certain fruits. Thus, according to figures from Asoex, Chile increased cherry shipments to Europe by 2% compared to what was sent to the continent last season. However, there are other areas of the world in which their purchases show a much greater force. That is how cherry shipments to the Far East grew by 69%.
Manuel Alcaino, president of Decofrut says that "currently the fruit market is responding well, except Europe, which is seen as a black spot."
Antonio Walker, general manager of the agricultural company Wapri says that "the positive thing is that we are entering very strongly to Latin America and the Far East. This has made us diversify markets and not rely on Europe and the U.S. It is too early to say, but I think we will have, in general terms, better prices."
Within the entire fruit universe that Chile produces, table grapes are the ones that
represent the most important part of exports, with sales of nearly 103 million cases (7 million less than in 2010-2011), ie 795,000 tons. According to Fedefruta, fruit destinations for this season are distributed among the U.S. (46%), Europe (27%), the Far East (11%), Latin America (7%) and other destinations (9%).
Walker explains that one of the reasons behind lower exports is that "in the U.S. earlier Chilean grapes found significant stock in the northern hemisphere." He also adds that, "therefore, the prices were not very good."
The head of Agricola Brown, John Carolus Brown, says there was also a significant drop in the production of some species. "The variety that has been most affected by this decline is the Thompson Seedless, followed by Red Globe." Given this
economic situation of decline in shipments to the U.S. market, our country has
had to export in larger quantities to China and Korea. However, he adds that "China is not the only country with demand growth, but also Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. These countries have pushed our exports quite a lot."
Other Fruits
In any case there are fruits that had an increase in exports this season, such as cherries (3 million boxes more) and blueberries (300 thousand additional cases). By contrast, apples (which are half way through their cycle) until now have decreased by 24%, while kiwi has fallen by 10% due to the high stock which Italy has.
Source: Estrategia