Chilean grape exports have settled down with exporters reporting that some three per cent more fruit was exported in the season to March 20 compared with 2004, as the effects of the delayed start have now been overcome. Volumes have reached 540,000 tonnes with the season in region III, one of the earliest to come on stream, now over. The region showed complete recovery from last season’s low volume year with a 24 per cent increase in volume.
The picture is similar in region IV where the harvest is all but complete and volumes are up five per cent on last year.
Regions V and VI have shown a decline in the order of 10 per cent and six per cent respectively on 2004 due to a decline in Flame Seedless volumes and in the case of region V a slump in Red Globe.
Production in the Metropolitan region is up across all varieties except Red Globe and Crimson Seedless that have yet to finish harvesting.
Fears of oversupply to Europe given the comparative strength of the euro against the dollar appear unfounded: sendings to the old world are broadly in line with the same point in the season last year at 100,000t and sendings to the US have climbed 6.5 per cent.
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