With the Chilean cherry season now underway, producers and exporters are anticipating a highly satisfactory campaign thanks largely to good weather that has allowed for strong production. 

Chilean Cherry Committee chairman Cristián Tagle told www.freshfruitportal.com the industry was eyeing total exports for the 2014-15 season of at least 100,000 metric tons (MT).

The grower group head said this season had been in stark contrast to last year's campaign that saw catastrophic frosts devastating the country's agricultural sector.

"In September 2013 we had the biggest frosts in more that 50 years here, which left all of us in the cherry industry us badly shaken," Tagle said.

The frosts resulted in cherry exports only amounting to 68,000-69,000MT, but this season the prospects were far more promising.

"Last year the initial estimate the total industry production was around 85,000-90,000MT, and this season we're well on track to hit 100,000MT and eventually maybe a little bit more," Tagle said.

"That will depend on the capacity of the fruit packing facilities at appropriate times, because when the volumes really pick up it can be a bit of a challenge to pack all of the fruit.

"Fortunately, for cherries we had a fairly consistent winter in terms of chilling hours. After the flowering stage there were some small setbacks as the start of spring was quite cold, and that affected production for the varieties that required cross-pollination. But overall the weather was good."

Export destinations and marketing plans

The Chinese market is currently the main focus of Chilean cherry exporters.

According to Tagle, the Asian giant has for the last three years received the highest volumes and paid the highest prices for the fruit, which are still on the up.

However, he did say that the biggest problem for the Chilean industry was working out 'which fruit to send and which not to send'.

"I'm talking about the varieties, quality, size, color, firmness - everything encompassed in the term 'quality' that our producers and exporters know so well," Tagle said.

"The time has arrived to make these crucial decisions and not mess up, because if there is one market in the world which will not stand for errors in quality, it's China."

Around 4,000 containers are expected to be shipped to China in a few weeks' time.

"Those volumes are going to be a reflection of a lot of fruit in the market, and so it is with those that the industry's overall quality will be determined," Tagle said.

The Chilean cherry industry also plans to boost investment in promotional and marketing strategies in China this year to maximize consumption.

"This will be the third consecutive year we're going to be doing promotional work in China. We're carrying out a marketing program worth more than US$600,000, which will be invested in a campaign of public and private funds," Tagle explained.

"We're convinced that the only way to stimulate consumption of this product in China is by doing promotional work and not letting our guard down with these campaigns, which have generally been fairly small. The idea this year is to step it up a notch from last year, and then next year to increase it from this year."

Chilean cherry marketing activities are also being conducted in U.S. supermarkets, and plans are also in the works for something similar in key Brazilian retailers from January.

"Essentially what we're doing is diversifying our promotional strategies in various different markets," he said.

The first exports of the season have already left Chile via airfreight, with 366 boxes sent to Europe and a further 256 boxes shipped to the Far East.

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