Chilean cherry exports have reached record levels at the midway point of the season. Figures from Asoex show that sendings to week 52 stood at 72,860 tonnes, with an estimated 11,000 tonnes still remaining to be shipped. This would give an export total for 2014/15 of 83,000 tonnes, or 16.6m cartons, equivalent to a 21 per cent rise on last season.
According to iQonsulting, the biggest volume rise came from the VI Region, which accounted for 40,000 tonnes, an increase of 60 per cent on 2013/14. In second place was the VII Region with 25,000 tonnes, up 15 per cent on last season.
Despite the rise, exports are expected to fall well short of the 113,000 tonnes forecast by iQonsulting last September due to the heavy rainfall that affected production regions during harvesting.
