Chilean cherry exporters leverage new tech for rampant China exports

This season’s cherry shipments from Chile to China are going through the roof, as shippers use improved technology to control the ambient conditions to send much of their crop by ocean carriers.

Decofrut, a Santiago-based quality control service provider to the fruit business, has seen an 85% surge in cherry exports to China this season, which, typically, kicked off in late October and runs through January. By the end of December it had clocked up 96m cartons of cherries, 88 million of which went to China.

On the receiving end, the port of Nansha handled more than 1,000 containers loaded with Chilean cherries over one weekend this month.

Overall, the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association estimates cherry exports are up 50% this year, to more than 120m boxes shipped.

According to Hapag-Lloyd, which runs a special Cherry Express service from November through January, Chile exported more than 22,400 containers of the fruit last season, with 94% headed for the Chinese market. This year, the carrier has had to step up the special service to keep up with volumes.

Another reason for the steep increase in volumes for Hapag-Lloyd has been the use of better technology to monitor the condition of shipments. It has deployed onboard sensors to send real-time updates on ambient conditions through its cloud-based system, developed in collaboration with the Digital Container Shipping Association, a non-profit organisation focusing on digitisation and standardisation in the shipping sector.

Historically, much of the cherry traffic has been moved by air to extend its shelf life. Trials conducted by Maersk and Geofrut in collaboration with the University of Chile last year opened the door to a major shift to ocean transport [see The Loadstar 22 July, 2024].

These trials confirmed that a controlled atmosphere that maintains the ideal mix of gases and humidity levels, is key to extending the lifespan of cherries in transport. Compared with the traditional method of using bags that push freshness up to 30 days from harvest, but do not offer visibility into gas management, controlled atmosphere adds a week, on average, to cherries’ shelf life, the tests showed.

The record exports to China, largely driven by a boost in cherry production in Chile, has had a downside, however. In conjunction with a narrower window to sell the fruit, in time for the lunar new year holiday, it put downward pressure on prices, which rose in 2023 from the higher use of airfreight.

On top of this, Chilean exporters are facing rising competition from cherry producers closer to China, the smaller cherry varieties at the low end of the spectrum, make it a challenging market. According to Decofrut, the yield from smaller fruit does not cover the cost, which is prompting discussions about diversification of markets.

Growers are talking of boosting exports to the US and Europe, while continuing to send top grade cherries to China, which historically paid more than twice what cherries could sell for elsewhere, making it very much the default destination for Chilean exporters.

This points to rising volumes of cherries moving across the Atlantic towards the end of 2025. Cherries have been Chile’s top export crop, accounting for 27% of the nation’s fresh fruit exports, with production continually rising in recent years.

And Chile’s blueberry exports are also in the ascent, albeit at a more modest scale. This season’s crop is an estimated 3.2% higher than last season. Interestingly, this was driven by a double-digit rise in frozen blueberry exports, while fresh volumes actually declined.

By Ian Putzger

Source: The LoadStar

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