With the significant strides Chilean producers have made on top fruit production, it is no great surprise that the industry has again been declared the number one apple exporter, extending its lead over other southern hemisphere rivals such as New Zealand and South Africa.
According to the World Apple Report, Chile has stretched its lead as the most competitive apple exporter in the world.
In its 10th annual comparison, the report showed that Chile was continuing to pull away from New Zealand
It said: “Chile has great natural resources for producing apples, excellent industry infrastructure and economic policies that are supportive of agricultural development.
“Second place New Zealand also has great natural advantages...but its edge over the world in innovation has been narrowed and it has suffered some slippage in marketing clout and in resource availability.”
The report measured performance against 22 different criteria covering production efficiency, industry infrastructure and inputs, and financial and market factors.
The news is not that surprising, as the Chilean industry has been consistently investing in its production for a number of years now, says Matthew Bardell, procurement manager with Hart Worldwide.
“We’re very happy with the business we’ve been doing with Chile, over the last couple of years. We’ve been getting good quality fruit and good prices from them, but also, over the last few years or so, they’ve put in very good information management systems,” he says.
“In terms of picking, packing, shipping and processing orders, they’re second to none in the southern hemisphere, and when it comes to quality problems, we’ve 99 per cent eradicated anything that can be identified at source. Any problems we get now are in transit. So in terms of production, the Chileans have very much raised their game.”
Richard Lowes, md of Empire World Trade, agrees: “Chile is an essential part of our procurement plan for the southern hemisphere. Chilean growers continue to invest in new plantings, replacing less popular varieties.”
The Chilean top fruit industry is mainly growing at the expense of New Zealand, says Bardell: “Supply from Chile is still quite small when you compare it with South Africa, generally we do the best part of two million cartons from South Africa, but Chile is less than a quarter of that.
“But it’s growing, and mainly at New Zealand’s expense, particularly on Gala. NZ were looking for higher prices than Chile, mainly because they’re got much higher overheads.”
Chile has also benefited from importers looking to spread their sources and reduce any potential risks. “With Braeburn, we’d experienced a number of quality problems in various sources over the last few years, so we’ve spread out our supply,” said Bardell. “Chile has benefited from that as we look to spread out our risk.”
Chile began its apple harvest the first week of February, with 3,418 boxes of Royal Gala shipped to the UK during the fifth week of the year. Another 5,006 boxes of Royal Gala were shipped to UK markets in week six.
Pear shipments from Chile to the UK have been more modest to date: only 11 cases were sent during the first three weeks of the year, then 2,434 cases of Red William pears were shipped during week four. Only a further six more cases were shipped to the UK in weeks five and six.
According to investigations by Decofrut, a Santiago-based fruit analysis and service company, Chile’s total Royal Gala exports should be on the order of 255,000 tonnes in 2005, or about 15 per cent greater than the previous season.
This means that Royal Gala volumes will exceed Red Delicious volumes for the first time ever. The Delicious volumes are expected to stay at last season’s level of 225,000t.
The harvest of Red Delicious apples started the first week of March, followed a week later by the beginning of the Granny Smith harvest.
This year’s Granny harvest is anticipated to grow by five per cent, reaching 138,000t, according to Decofrut estimates.
At the moment the industry is moving into Braeburn, which traditionally gets underway at the end of March. This year, the crop is anticipated to grow by six per cent, up to 33,000t. Fujis get underway at the beginning of April and the crop is forecast to increase by 20 per cent to 59,000t.
The Pink Lady harvest will close the season, beginning in the first week of May, and total volume is expected to rise by 15 per cent to 32,000t.
Overall, Chile is expecting its apple exports this season to top 796,000t, or around nine per cent higher than 2004.
However, despite the official estimates, some of the views from the ground contradict the Decofrut figures. It has not all been plain sailing for the country this season, and weather conditions have caused a number of headaches for the industry, says Ricardo Gonzalez, Hart Worldwide’s business development manager in Chile.
“The spring time was a hard time for the fruit industry, because we had a lot of rain, particularly in the apple growing areas. Fortunately, since then, conditions have improved. It’s been warm and dry, although sometimes it has been a little too hot.”
He said his firm’s volumes of Gala had initially looked very good, but the wet spring and following hot weather has seen estimates revised down by 10 per cent.
Red apples have also suffered, he says: “A long period of hot weather has also had an impact on the colour of red apples, with hot days and cool nights. That has made it very difficult to achieve the colours on the fruit and we’re struggling to get those right on Red Chief and Red Delicious. It has been more difficult than we expected.”
Another problem may be caused by further rain, particularly with Braeburn, he says: “We’ve had one period of rainfall and we’re expecting another one soon.
“It shouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but it may affect fruit that’s put into long term storage. Short and medium storage will be fine, but for longer periods we’ll have to watch.” However, he says he doesn’t anticipate it creating any serious problems for early northern hemisphere supply.
Overall, he expects the weather conditions to have an impact across all varieties, with total volumes down by around 10 to 15 per cent.
Despite the various problems, quality is still looking solid though, says Gonzalez: “Colour is looking good on Braeburn and Pink, and quality is very good.”
This view is echoed by Lowes: “Initial forecasts were very bullish. But the very hot weather in the latter part of the harvest had reduced the availability of later picked fruit.”
Despite this, he says some later, cooler and wetter weather, while not good for grapes, has been very welcome for top fruit.
“We have started selling early varieties such as Royal Gala, Red Williams and early Packhams. Granny Smiths will be arriving in the near future. Fruit is selling well and in good condition, quality observed at source and in the early arrivals has been good.”
When it comes to pears, Chile is not as dynamic as it is on apples. The 2005 pear harvest is anticipated at a total of 118,000t, a slight one per cent increase over the previous season, according to the Decofrut figures.
Packhams makes up the bulk of the export, at around 64,000t, followed by Beurre Bosc at 10,000t. The Abate Fetel variety is a strong third, with the harvest expected to weigh in at 9,000t, a 10 per cent increase over the previous season.
The pear harvest normally starts in Region IV during the second or third week of January with the harvesting of Coscia, Bartlett and Packham varieties, and then continues south all the way to Region VII, where the last of the Packham and Beurre D’anjou varieties are harvested in September and October.
The growing season for Asian Pear varieties is much more reduced, running from mid January with the Hosui variety and ending in early March with the Nijisseiki variety.
Overall, when it comes to top fruit, the business is looking good for Chile, and if the country continues to stride away from the pack, as it is doing, then things can only get better, as Lowes says: “There is a bright future for Chilean top fruit because they consistently produce good eating fruit, as good as any in the southern hemisphere.”
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