This year's Chilean cherry season may return to more normal timing if the level of flowering is any indication, according to a local expert. 

Carlos Tapia is the technical director at Avium, a company dedicated to consulting, research and development in cherries.

He told www.freshfruitportal.com while it was still far too early to give estimates for the campaign, in the absence of any further weather events the season ahead looked promising despite the minor effects of frosts in some areas.

He said flowering started 7-10 days earlier than last year, but "last year we were delayed by between seven and 10 days".

"However, we have some frost damages in some zones close to the province of Curicó, but I personally believe the damage is still unquantifiable in terms of production because while there were damages in floral structures that hasn't yet translated into production," Tapia said.

On the other hand, Tapia explained there had been very good daytime temperatures in recent weeks, which helps for flowering.

"In general we're going well. It's important to understand that because of the absence of rains at the end of winter, soils are drier than normal to date, so in a lot of areas we've already started irrigating," he said.

"We think that in general there is abundant flowering, which could translate into an abundant fruit set. You have to be careful, especially in areas not affected by frosts, as there could be an excess of fruiting and perhaps an excess load that has to be predicted to make adjustments for the necessary loads in each orchard."

He said it was possible that Chile could reach 25 million boxes of production if current conditions continued.

"We still have high production as a country and we have to try to get fruit of good quality," he said.

"In productive terms I think it wouldn't be prudent to say we have less fruit - it's very preliminary," he added, mentioning any losses from the frosts may have served to balance the amount of supply for the market.

Tapia said harvests could start in the first week of November for the Royal Down variety, and perhaps in the second or third week of that month for Santina cherries in the earliest growing zones.

"I think it's a very normal season compared to last year which was a very delayed season because of the cold spring, and in contrast now it's not delayed at all."

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