Blueberries: Recovering from backwardness

Cranberries: Recovering from the backwardness

11/01/2016

The cold spring led to the start of the season with less fruit than expected. It is estimated that even then production and exports will be higher than those of the previous harvest.

"What has marked this season is the backwardness at the beginning, which has been the product of this changing climate that has not allowed the fruit to mature in the usual times. There is part of the production that has been lost, so we adjust our estimates ", points out Andrés Armstrong, general manager of the Committee of Blueberries, referring to the delay of the harvest and export that has lived this season and that affected especially the early varieties.

The above is the product of a cold spring that delayed the ripening process of the fruit and that, according to the estimates of the Committee of Blueberries, would have meant an initial deficit that reached an 48%, affecting the beginning to the productions of the north zone and center and to the early varieties, but that as the season progressed it rebounded, arriving at a deficit that is estimated would be of a 20%.

If compared to the previous year, the 27 of December just past the cumulative deficit was an 20%. However, and in accordance with the Committee's projections, the adjustment should be shortened because the harvest of the medium and late varieties has begun.

However, it is estimated that this season blueberry production is higher than the previous season in a 9,56%, according to the data from the consultancy iQonsulting, since it is expected to reach the 149 thousand tons versus the 136 thousand of the previous campaign. At this point, with the figures of the 52 week, it can be said that the shipments have been normalized. In the week of the 21 to the 27 of December, the shipments totaled 8.400 tons, a little lower than the 8.800 tons that had been shipped in December from 2014.

Isabel Quiroz, director of iQonsulting, says that the first weeks of exports were made with blueberries that "Despite having the same size, sometimes greater because of the amount of time that the fruits spent in the plant, the fruit was less heavy".

The positive thing is that in the market there is an unmet demand, since Argentina also suffered the ravages of the weather, with hail included, which depleted its production.

This has led to that it is estimated that, in general, prices would be higher than those of the previous season, although the result will depend on the final destination and the time of sale.

Future exporter

The export estimates for this season are at 96.300 tons, versus the 92 thousand last year, in an area close to the 16 thousand hectares and in recent years lives a replacement of less productive varieties.

Isabel Quiroz states that today we are in the second export phase of this season.

The El Niño phenomenon should have moved away from the country and "We have to wait for a little while in January to confirm, at packing level, if they were able to fill the fruits and if they also have the right solid-solubles and the weight they usually have for those calibers that we are used to harvesting "He says.

Add that "Today you have to wait for the size, to take more color and more sugar. It is the time of the great volumes. It is in full harvest ".

The expert is optimistic and believes in recovery. "I hope we will reach similar export levels last year and that because there are new plantations that went into production, which are in a growing phase, both in the VII and VIII Region".

He believes that in the future it can grow in the early and late production of blueberries. "In the central sector (of production) there is an important price decrease that, although it is still a business to export blueberries, it is not as attractive as it was 10 ago"He says.

Recommends that exporters pay attention to the threats that could be caused by producers in Peru, in relation to early varieties, and in Mexico, in what are the late varieties of our production.

Also, he suggests paying attention to shipments to Asia, because "There are adjustments to be made in terms of arrival, because the journeys are very long. You have to know better the varieties and the quality ". He adds that, due to the volume that Chile is handling, it is necessary to "Executives who know very well how to do it so as not to damage the market".

Source: Revista del Campo