Chile’s fruit growers are expecting a better season in 2008-09 than 2007-08, but sound a warning on the global economic and financial crisis.

Growers’ leader Rodrigo Echeverría, president of the Chilean producers’ federation Fedefruta, said he hoped for an improvement in fortunes given the rate of exchange with the dollar is in Chile’s favour. He said: “But the situation could be complicated by the economic and financial crisis, especially in the US, our main export destination. The crisis will affect us and I think we will see a fall in consumption.”

He added that he did not foresee a fall in returns to growers, but added that he was not “optimistic” enough to forecast a rise either.

Echeverría was speaking in Santiago as he unveiled Fedefruta’s full results from the 2007-08 season, which showed that although export volumes were almost static compared to 2006-07, values rose overall by eight per cent. He put the stagnation in volumes down to increased costs and a requirement for investment of working capital on the part of growers to see them through. Sendings fell by just 1,000 tonnes to 2.352 million tonnes during the period.

The highlights were an increase in cherry values of 109 per cent year on year, although this was accompanied by an increase in volume. Nectarine earnings rose 14 per cent overall and peaches and pears 12 per cent each. The situation for blueberries echoed that of cherries, where overall value rose by 12 per cent, against a backdrop of increased volumes.

Echeverría also pointed out that an increase in export values was tempered with rising costs for growers, that have outstripped the increase in the dollar price.

There is also evidence that despite an apparent recovery in the grape sector with volume and value rises, Chile’s export portfolio is undergoing restructuring. He said: “The increase in the overall value of exports is down to the rise in sendings of high-value products such as cherries and blueberries. This is indicative of a re-ordering of our export basket.”

He added that slight changes in export destinations are starting to show themselves, with sendings to the main market of the US declining as exports to Europe rose; a trend that Echeverría forecasts will grow stronger in 2008-09.

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