As reported by the Chinese media Produce Report, the season's first sea shipment of Chilean cherries arrived in Hong Kong on December 12. This first shipment consisted of 240 containers of cherries of the Royal Dawn (145 containers), Santina (71), Glen Red (9), Bing (5), Lapins (2), and Royal Lynn (2) varieties, mainly of caliber J.
After passing through customs in Hong Kong that night, the first batch of three containers arrived in the Jiangnan Wholesale Fruit Market on December 13 at around 3 p.m. local time. Many wholesalers waited all night to be the first ones to get their hands on the newly arrived cherries. As of the morning of December 14, a total of 70 containers had been opened at the Jiangnan Fruit Wholesale Market.
At 10 am that morning, the first maritime shipment of Chilean cherries had already arrived at the Huizhan market in Shanghai, where it also attracted the interest of buyers and distributors and where the fruit was sold quickly.
Currently, there are more than 100 containers of cherries waiting to clear Hong Kong customs before they can reach local markets.
As of last week, Chile had loaded 1,036 containers of cherries onto ships bound for China. The second shipment is expected to arrive in Hong Kong on December 20, while the third and fourth will arrive on December 22 and 25, respectively. These four shipments mainly contain Santina and Royal Dawn cherries.
316,000 tons
In its second estimate, the ASOEX Cherry Committee expects the Chilean cherry industry will export more than 316,000 tons of fresh cherries, mainly to China, in the 2020-2021 season.
The Cherry Committee, together with ProChile, will intensify promotions, especially targeting the health attributes of Chilean cherries, which makes them a fruit that can be consumed at any time of day, occasion, or place.
Source: producereport.com / simfruit.cl