Chilean apple exports fell sharply in the first six months of 2015 according to the latest official trade figures. Information from the customs authorities show a 21.7 per cent drop in exports for the year to June, with shipments standing at 411,000 tonnes compared with 525,000 tonnes in the year-earlier period.
Producer association Fedefruta claimed the widescale uprooting of older, unproductive orchards and adverse climatic conditions which resulted in irregular coloration were the main reasons for the fall. “Prices are very tight on global markets and you need to have high-yielding varieties to stand any chance of finishing the season in the black,” said director Antonio Walker. “In order to survive in this business we have to switch to newer, more attractive and productive varieties and become more efficient.”
Walker added that the frosts at the end of 2014 in the Maule region – the heart of Chile’s apple production – and the exposure of crops to high levels of solar radiaiton in the summer had also affected returns this season.
“Production in the Northern Hemisphere was also very high this season and with storage techniques improving every year we find ourselves increasingly competing with local production in markets like Europe, something that just didn’t happen before,” Walker added.
He said producers had been forced to rethink their sales strategy, focusing more on alternative markets like the Middle East (which has overtaken Europe for the first time in volume shipped), and Latin America and Asia.
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