For more than two decades, Chilean growers and shippers have been the main source of “summer fruits” for the U.S. market during the winter. In fact, in some of its U.S. marketing materials, Chilean growers use the tagline: “A taste of summer. Fresh from Chile.” 
Karen Brux, managing director of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association, which is the entity that represents fruit from that South American country, recently told The Produce News that 2018-19 should be an excellent year. The main fruits supplied by Chile during the U.S. winter months are cherries, blueberries, grapes, peaches, plums and nectarines. “Consumers don’t always fully understand the seasonality of different fruits, so we want to communicate that we’re not displacing domestic fruit. Rather, we’re allowing consumers to enjoy their favorite domestic fruits year-round,” she said.
With a few select air shipments of cherries and blueberries, the Chilean season got under way in early November. Depending upon the item in question, for most crops the season will last into one of the spring months. Grapes tend to have the longest presence in the U.S. market, beginning in December and lasting into early May. Blueberries typically stretch from November through March, while peaches and nectarines usually occupy the marketing window of December to March. Plums also start in December but typically stretch into April. Like their U.S. brethren, cherries have the shortest season of these items as they are usually imported only from November to January.
Brux revealed that the total volume of Chile’s fruit exports continues to grow from year to year, but U.S. volume has been steady. “Chile exported a total of 2.78 million tons of fresh fruit in the 2017-18 season, a 6.7 percent increase over 2016-17,” she said. “With new markets taking much of this increase, volumes shipped to the U.S. have been stable. Close to 850,000 tons are shipped to the U.S. each year, making it the largest export market for Chile.”
Of course, this dynamic of stable U.S. supplies is not the same for all fruits. Blueberries, for example, have registered impressive volume gains in the United States recently. Global exports of fresh blueberries from Chile in 2013-14 registered at 74,620 tons, with that number jumping to 110,351 tons in 2017-18. That’s a 48 percent increase over that time period, with North America representing the vast majority of that increase. In 2017-18, the United States had a 40 percent growth rate in Chilean blueberry consumption, and had a 64 percent market share of all Chilean fresh blueberry exports. “We’re coming from a record year last season in terms of production and exports so for 2018-19 we are forecasting a little bit less volume in fresh — about 5 percent less compared with the volume that we had last season,” Brux said.
Peach exports to North America have grown by almost 10 percent over the last several years. Brux said air shipments have assisted in this increase, with retailers promoting a “Flown in Fresh” message to their customers.
Chilean grape varieties are what started the influx of Chilean fruit to the United States almost three decades ago. Today, grape volume is relatively stable. “The great news with grape exports out of Chile is that if you look at volumes of specific varieties, Chile is shipping more of the varieties that the trade wants — varieties like Timco, Sweet Celebration — and less of the varieties that have fallen out of favor, such as Flames,” said the Chilean fruit representative.
Just like the summer months, the old standby grape varieties are becoming less popular. Flame Seedless shipments from Chile to the United States have fallen a total of about 35 percent over the last three years. “The North American market is of huge importance to the Chilean fresh fruit industry, and exporters/growers are moving quickly to supply what this market wants,” Brux said.
As for cherries, the vast majority of Chile’s crop is sold in China, but with production continuing to increase, exporters are trying to develop other markets, and the United States is a natural choice. “There’s definitely strong retail demand for Chilean cherries, and I believe we’ll start to see increased volumes and increased marketing support in the coming years,” she said.
