Third forecast of the ASOEX Table Grape Committee: New varieties will lead the 67 million boxes of table grapes that Chile expects to export this season

As announced in its second forecast, the ASOEX Table Grape Committee has released a third forecast for exports of this fruit for the 2022-2023 season, where the increase in shipments of new varieties continues to stand out.

In its third projection, the Committee foresees reaching 66,920,661 boxes, a figure that is 10% lower than last season’s shipments, and 2.5% lower than what was projected by the entity last October (second forecast).

In this respect, Iván Marambio, president of ASOEX explained to Simfruit that: “although the new forecast reflects a drop, the truth is that it has a positive explanation for the Chilean table grape industry, as the decrease is due, especially, to a change in varieties that the industry has been promoting for some time now and that today is beginning to bear fruit, as more than 50% of exports will be of new varieties”.

The president of ASOEX indicated that it has been more than a decade since “the sector began with this varietal change, which, this season will mark a milestone and record in terms of volumes in terms of exports of our grapes”.

In practice, this means that Chile will send 36,251,172 boxes of new varieties of grapes to the world, 19,513,322 boxes of traditional varieties and 11,156,167 boxes of Red Globe, a variety that is losing more and more ground in exports, falling 25% this season compared to last season.

Among the new varieties, the red varieties lead shipments with 17,599,994 boxes, where Timco, Allison and Sweet Celebration stand out. White varieties follow with 14,125,520 boxes, especially ARRA 15, Timpson and Sweet Globe. Finally, there are the new black varieties with 4,525,657 boxes, led by Sweet Favours, Sable Seedless and Sweet Saphire.

Regarding destinations, Ignacio Caballero, Coordinator of the Committee, said that “the United States will continue to be our main market. We are estimating that around 40 million boxes will be destined for this market, 15 million will be delivered to Asia, while 9 million will go to Europe, followed by 6 million to other destinations such as Latin America and the Middle East”.