As prices plummet, SNA president Antonio Walker says exporters cannot depend on China alone
Chile’s cherry industry is facing renewed calls to seek greater market diversification after prices fell sharp fall in prices on the Chinese market. This year’s record shipment volume has triggered a 50 per cent drop in prices ahead of the Chinese New Year festival.
In an interview with Radio Duna, Antonio Walker, president of the National Association of Agriculture (SNA) and former agriculture minister, said it was unlikely that prices will recover in the remainder of the season.
“We are already seeing that the price of cherries is not going to recover from last year. We have to do a very deep analysis so that we learn the lesson. The market with 83mn cartons responded very well and with 115mn it did not,” he said. “When there is an excess of supply, prices go down and when there is less supply, prices go up.”
Walker added that “by increasing the supply of small fruit, it messes up the market a bit, so one of the conclusions we have to draw is what sizes we should export and I think it is obvious that we cannot export fruit smaller than 26mm. We have to work in the orchards to adjust the load to have the product that the consumer wants to receive and not the one that the producer wants to export”.
He called on the sector to unite in efforts to carve out new export markets. “We have to conquer India, the Middle East, North Africa…we cannot depend 93 per cent on China alone,” he said.
Following a meeting between SNA, ProChile, Frutas de Chile, Fedefruta and other industry associations this week, Walker highlighted the strategic importance of Chile’s cherry industry to the national economy.
“This is a wonderful industry that has a tremendous future that depends on us. It depends on us being able to do things right,” he said.
Fedefruta president Victor Catalán echoed the sentiment, noting that “the cherry industry is not ending this year, but is moving forward. A strong, thriving business that has given great dynamism to Chilean fruit growing and we believe that it will continue to be so”
