Marketers say they are gearing up for promotable volumes of fruit from Chile for the upcoming winter months.
“The good news is, Chile had a winter that provided a good amount of rain and snowpack in the mountains, so most growers aren’t facing the same water issues they were looking at last year,” said Josh Leichter, general manager of Los Angeles-based Pacific Trellis Fruit.
“It has been a good spring for the production of fruits and everyone is currently optimistic about the size of the crop and quality of the fruit for the coming season.”
Karen Brux, managing director of the San Carlos, Calif.-based Chilean Fresh Fruit Association, agreed, noting there was greater water availability in the central-Chile growing districts of Valparaiso, Santiago and O’Higgins.
“The greater rains in winter and snow accumulated in the mountain range have breathed new life into the regions affected last year by the drought,” she said.
For Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole Food Co., lack of rain appears to be an issue in Chile, said Bil Goldfield, communications manager.
“Weather in Chile remains dry, which will continue to be an issue through the 2021 season,” he said.
Dry conditions are favorable to great quality; however, they also lead to smaller fruit, Goldfield said.
Grapes and blueberries
A “fantastic” grape crop is anticipated, Goldfield said.
“We expect a nice crop in both volume and quality, and the percentage of new varieties will continue to increase year over year,” he said.
From a volume standpoint, Timco and Allisons will show the largest increases, potentially replacing the flame and crimson, Goldfield said.
February has the most plentiful volumes for promotions, Brux said.
“This is a key promotion month for blueberries, peaches and nectarines, with the cherry season coming to a close,” she said.
Grapes are the biggest category for Chile in terms of shipments to North America, Brux said.
Leichter said Pacific Trellis’ Chilean import fruit program has shown steady growth over the past few years, with average annual volume growth of around 20%.
North America receives about half of Chile’s blueberry exports, and this year’s fresh blueberry export estimate is 111,500 tons, a similar figure to that of 2019-20 and 2% higher than the previous season, Brux said.
“Although in terms of volume there are no significant variations, the varieties share is changing,” she said. “The new varieties are advancing at a steady pace as the old varieties are decreasing.”
As of mid-October, blueberry exports remain mainly focused on two markets — North America with 51% of shipments to date, and the Far East with 47% — while organic shipments have been entirely destined for the U.S. market, Brux said, noting that the U.S. is the primary destination for organic blueberries from Chile.
Dole’s Goldfield said a “strong” blueberry crop — “similar in size to what we saw early in 2020 — is coming.
“We are forecasting more blues to be sent to the U.S. this season, as Europe and China markets begin to soften,” Goldfield said.
“Retail customers will see the peak supplies arriving (the) last week of December through end of January — an excellent time to promote before the strawberry promotions of February.”
Rainfall
Growing-season rainfall was a helpful change, compared to recent years, said Eric Coty, vice president of South American operations for Vancouver, British Columbia-based The Oppenheimer Group.
“First and foremost, Chile welcomed good winter rains to most growing regions following 10 straight years of drought,” he said.
“This is great news for Chilean growers and for consumers this season, and we remain hopeful for a second wet winter following this season.”
Cherry production was ramping up in late October, Coty said, noting that this year’s estimate of 60 million cartons will beat the 51 million of a year ago.
Oppy also has seen continued increases in proprietary grape varieties, Coty said.
“Thanks to a continued transition to these high-yielding new varieties and plentiful water supply, our growers are forecasting strong quality and overall crop-size. In fact, many are projecting a 10-15% volume increase above last season,” he said.
A newly expanded systems approach by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will benefit Chilean blueberry shipments, Coty said.
“With the recent USDA expansion of the systems approach model, which in turn led to the approval of new areas in Nuble and Biobio, more blueberry growers will be able to avoid fumigation and temperature break on arrival in the U.S.,” he said.
Organic
Organics have come to play a major role in the Chilean deal, said Brian Bocock, vice president of product management for Salinas, Calif.-based grower-shipper Naturipe Farms LLC.
“The big evolution in Chile has been the movement of a mainly conventional production to organic,” he said. “As Mexico and Peru entered into conventional blueberry production, we were able to shift our Chilean production to mostly organic.”
Production is more difficult in Mexico and Peru in January and February, so Chile offers the opportunity to continue conventional production then, Bocock said.
“Naturipe has a significant number of proprietary varieties, which does put us at a competitive advantage, as they’re a bit firmer and more appealing flavor profiles than conventional,” he said.
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