Exports of Chilean cherries fall by 20% in the current season

Over 300,000 tonnes of cherry have been packed and shipped so far in the 2023-2024 season, a figure that reveals a contraction of 20% compared to the previous campaign period, according to Claudia Soler, executive director of the Cherry Committee at the Asoex association.

Nevertheless, the executive highlighted that the downward trend is expected to slow by the end of January. “We are in a season that is delayed by ten days to 2 weeks, so we should expect this decline to decrease,” she emphasized.

In the first week of January, the container ships Wan Hai 516 and OOCL Memphis arrived in Shanghai, China, with approximately 770 containers loaded with cherries from Chile destined for the Huizhan market, as reported by Empack Limitada.

The chart below shows the progression of Chilean exports of cherries in containers between Jan 2019 and Oct 2023. The data is from DataLiner.

Cherry Exports from Chile | Jan 2019 – Oct 2023 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

With this, sales are anticipated to revive the trade of Chilean cherries, which suffered during the year-end festivities. Additionally, it was noted that prices remained “high and stable,” ranging between 220 and 250 yuan per 2.5-kilogram box (from $25.445 to $31.806), but with low movement, as recorded in the report prepared by Guillermo Pérez, Post-Harvest Category Manager at Empack, regarding the first week of 2024.

“This is mainly due to fruit quality issues and the expectation for the arrival of three new ships in the middle of the week. By Thursday, January 4, a total of 70 containers circulated in the market, pushing prices down significantly but allowing for smoother sales of the fruit,” the correspondence added.

In the same vein, Claudia Soler reported, “We are closely monitoring this season as it had a somewhat challenging start due to the weather conditions that affected our country and somehow impacted the production of earlier varieties and also delayed our harvest.”

“The peak weeks were weeks 51 and 52, so we should expect the highest cherry export volumes, mainly to China, starting from January 15, when we will implement our promotion campaign more forcefully. Although we have already started our campaign, we have not yet reached the highest volumes, where we carry out the most significant activations in retail, online platforms, wholesale markets, specialty stores, and various other areas covered by our actions,” she added.

Source: PortalPortuario

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