After having had an excellent growth period in South Korea in recent seasons, the Chilean Blueberry Committee will, once again, support their fruit by working with importers and retail partners in that country. Andres Armstrong, Executive Director of the Chilean Blueberry Committee, who works with the Association of Chilean Fruit Exporters (ASOEX) in the promotion of Chilean blueberries around the world, spoke about the next season's outlook.
"We all know that the Chilean fresh fruit exports have been affected by a series of frosts since September 17," said Armstrong. "The frosts affected a large part of the blueberry growing area, which stretches for over 1,000 kilometres from north to south, and these have been the worst frosts of this kind in the last 40 years. The crop damage differs; some farmers lost all of their production in the most affected areas where flowering had already begun by the time the frosts began.
"As a result of bad weather, the fruit's volumes are expected to decrease and the harvest will have some kind of delay. Exports will start a week later than usual, during week 48," he said. "Despite this, we still expect this season's blueberry exports to be higher than in the previous year. Chile is the largest producer of fresh blueberries in the southern hemisphere as well as the largest exporter of fresh blueberries. Exports are expected to grow again this year by about 7% when compared to the previous season and should amount to 93,000 tonnes worldwide."
"The fact that the blueberry industry can continue to grow despite the devastating climate problems is due to a significant increase in the planting area in recent years," said Armstrong. "We have 15,596 acres of blueberries planted across the country, only half of which is already fully mature. Our projections indicate that there will be a 42% increase in production and exports in the next five years."
"The consumption of blueberries is growing throughout the world. The Asian markets, with South Korea, along with China and Japan, leading the volume of imports and growth, currently represent 5% of Chilean exports. As we continue to support our fruit exports by promoting them and creating awareness in the Korean industry and among Korean consumers this market will become a much larger proportion of our customer base."
Source: Chilean Blueberry Committee