The Chilean Blueberry Committee expects its 2010/11 exports to rise by 28 per cent compared with last season, with a crop of 49,793 tonnes according to recently released figures.
To date, shipments are said to be running nearly 4 per cent ahead of estimates, and already 43 per cent of the total crop, or 27,453 tonnes, has been shipped up to week 52.
Sizeable volumes of high-quality Chilean blueberries continue to arrive at all points of entry into major market, the Committee said.
The US is expected to receive about 82 per cent of the current export crop, with the remainder of the volume absorbed by Europe and Asia.
Chile’s blueberry harvest has now come to a close in the northern areas and is nearly complete in the country’s central zone.
The south-central regions, meanwhile, are shipping the majority of fruit at present, while the harvest is just beginning in the southern zone.
