The blueberry season in Chile's southern VII (Maule) and VII (Biobío) regions is coming to an end, with only the Brightwell and Tifblue varieties left to harvest.

In the remaining production regions harvests will mostly be focused on the Elliott variety, which has shown uniform ripening thus far.

The Chilean Blueberry Committee says the country's production volumes are now decreasing with estimated exports of 4,337 metric tons (MT) for the week until this Sunday (week 5), compared to 6,075MT during week 4.

The last shipments are expected in week 8 and season shipping estimates are estimated to be 73,986MT, compared to 69,634MT for the 2010-11 season.

The committee reports that rain affected some southern blueberry harvesting over the weekend, with work starting again slowly on Tuesday.

The Elliott variety has progressed 20% out of its total expected harvest for the year.

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