Although Chilean kiwifruit volumes are still recovering from severe frosts in 2013, exporter Subsole believes good fruit quality and attractive markets will make this season a positive one. 

The company's commercial manager for kiwifruit and avocados Oscar Villegas told www.freshfruitportal.com nationwide production would likely be somewhere between a normal year and last seasons's substantially reduced crop.

"At the moment Chile's volumes haven't fully recovered to what they were before. Two years ago, in 2013, Chile exported around 215,000 metric tons (MT), and last year it was about 98,000MT," he said.

"This year I believe the export volumes will be roughly in the middle of those two - around 150,000MT, maximum 160,000MT."

Villegas said while these figures could largely be attributed to the September 2013 frosts that led to an estimated 60% dip in national production, the vine disease Psa had also played a part.

"There are new detections showing that Psa is spreading further north - to begin with it was just in the south," he said.

"So the disease is advancing and the situation is getting worse, but despite this, the majority of the adverse effects are on the gold varieties, like Jintao or other similar ones. Generally it hasn't been affecting Hayward too much."

The Chilean Kiwifruit Committee recently released information saying Psa was affecting 40% of gold kiwifruit production land, compared to only 16% for green varieties.

"[Protecting the Hayward variety] has meant very high initial costs," Committee president Carlos Cruzat said.

"The costs are a product of programs dedicated to fighting the disease, such as the construction of footpaths, the implementation of management protocols and orchard monitoring, among other things."

While the national kiwifruit volumes may still be limited, Villegas said attractive climatic conditions had led to a good fruit quality and all of Chile's major international markets were looking very strong.

"It seems as though everyone will be paying good prices - Latin America, Europe, Asia and the United States," he said.

"The prices will likely be a little bit lower than last year when the prices were very very high, but they will remain at a good level."

Along with Chile's reduced supply, Villegas said another cause of strong prices was competitor New Zealand's reduced Hayward volumes that had resulted from many producers switching over to gold varieties.

"If you look at Hayward production levels in New Zealand, they will be lower than what they were five years ago, and so this means that international prices will be higher,"he said.

The Subsole representative also highlighted how demand had been notably improving in European and Asian markets, as well as in the U.S.

Harvest of some early varieties and limited Hayward crops will take place toward the end of March, with the industry expected to be in full swing over April.

Subsole's production should constitute between 12 and 14 percent of total industry volumes, according to Villegas.

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