Chilean kiwifruit projects a good season despite a late start

Overview of kiwifruit from Chile in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on May 8, 2024.

The president of the Chilean Kiwifruit Fruit Committee, Carlos Cruzat, spoke with FreshFruitPortal.com about the current state of the season, which he described as “atypical”, given that “we have been delayed by 10 to 12 days and this has made it a slower season in the departure of shipments.”

Cruzat indicated that they have seen that exporters and producers have followed the guidelines of the committee in terms of maturity parameters for harvest and “have understood the benefits for the fruit in terms of marketing, storage, and fruit weight when they wait for harvest and have a better quality of fruit.”

In this sense, he pointed out that they have not had any pressure from producers and exporters, “on the contrary, we have seen a lot of maturity from the industry, as they have been very responsible, waiting to have the appropriate maturity for harvest.”

The president of the Kiwifruit Committee emphasized that this year has required much more attention and dedication in the monitoring of each orchard and the harvest, “in being able to segregate and decide what to keep, what to process faster, what to sell faster, which has been done with great care.”

In his opinion, the season is progressing well. “We are slower than usual and the markets outside have small volumes while they wait for more fruit to arrive from Chile.”

In this sense, he explained that New Zealand also has a late season, “therefore, the arrival of fruit from the southern hemisphere is still very low.”

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Markets

Regarding the markets, he said there are good prices, given the 30% drop in production from the northern hemisphere, which increased demand.

For Cruzat, demand for kiwifruit has remained high, and the markets are very active.

“There has been good demand for Chilean fruit, so expectations are good, but obviously once the fruit arrives, the markets will probably adjust to the volume,” he said. 

“There is 30% more fruit coming out of New Zealand, so there will be more fruit available than last year. But it would still be a good season. In the last four seasons we have been in a market platform that values kiwifruit well,” he said.

Volume

As of week 18, the president of the Chilean Kiwifruit Committee commented that they have not made any changes regarding the projected volume. He explained that they have seen that in the northern zone of the O’Higgins Region, they obtained a little less than the expected volume, “but towards the south, we have compensated, so we are more or less similar to what we had expected, which was 130,000 tons.”

Regarding the fruit, he said, “This is a year in which there are very different orchards, but where there is more flat fruit than other years and the size is noticeably larger.”

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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