Of the fruits exported, table grapes represent 33% of the total. Apples (red and green) come second, with 30%. These products, representing 63% of the total, grew by 4.3% and 2.8% respectively.
Likewise, the volume of kiwis, pears, plums and blueberries (which together represent 21% of the total) also grew; kiwis by 5.4% and pears by 4.6%, but the biggest increase was registered by plums, with an 11.2% variation, and blueberries, with a 23.1% growth, reaching 87,047 tonnes.
On the other side of the scale, avocados presented the biggest drop, with a -34% variation, as well as citrus (except for mandarins, which grew by 32%), which saw a -20% drop for oranges, -28% for lemons and -1.9% for nectarines. While it is true that the traditional concept for season (September to August) does not apply to avocados and citrus, given their harvest and sales dates, these figures shows the trends during the aforementioned period.
Regarding destination markets, the United States is still the main recipient for Chilean fruit, and although it presented a -0.8% variation, it reached 857,412 tonnes. The Netherlands, as European point of entry, reached 279,022 tonnes, with a 17.1% variation over the previous season. Asia comes third, mainly represented by China and Hong Kong, which saw an 18% increase, reaching 199,043 tonnes.
Fruit production devoted for exports mainly concentrates in the III and VII Regions. The Region of Libertador Bernardo O´Higgins remains the country's largest producer, with 34% of all exports (881,981 tonnes), followed by the Region of Maule, with 24% (632,326 tonnes) and the Region of Valparaiso, which represents 13% of all exports (347,795 tonnes).
The increase in export volumes of the IX and VIII Regions are particularly noteworthy, with 10.8% and 31.4% respectively.
Source: Terra.cl