The latest fruit land registers presented by the Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies (Odepa) reveal that the area devoted to cherry production in Chile has multiplied by 19 in the past two decades.
In 2000 the country had 3,241 hectares of cherry trees and in 2022 it had 61,559 hectares. To measure the magnitude of this growth, it's worth noting that the number of new hectares of cherry planted in 2022 (12,599 hectares) is greater than the total area that the country had devoted to this species in 2009 (12,468 hectares).
Cherry crops already account for 16.4% of the entire surface of fruit trees in the country. It is followed by walnuts (12.3%), and table grapes (11.5%).
This explosive growth, however, has also brought some issues for some producers. According to Juan Pablo Subercaseaux, an academic at the Catholic University, a specialist in Agricultural Economics, and a producer of cherries, with this accelerated increase in supply, competition is being defined by comparative advantages.
“It's still a good business for those who have a competitive advantage. However, those who have more production costs because they have to control water, rain, or have little production because of the climate zone they are in, aren't faring so well anymore,” he said. “It's okay for it to grow like any business that's doing well, but this is clearly translating into the business reducing its margins.”
According to Subercaseaux, there are three main problems associated with this boom. The first has to do with the fact that the cherry harvest is carried out in a very short period of time, especially when taking into account the pressure there is for the product to arrive on time in China for the Chinese New Year. Nearly 80% of production is concentrated in December, the agronomist stated.
As a result, a lot of labor is needed in a very short time; a need that increases as the new orchards enter into production. Subercaseaux's calculations say that, between 2017 and 2025, the number of workers required exclusively to harvest cherries would increase from 200,000 to 600,000.
The second issue, the academic stated, is that -on those dates- there is also a shortage of machines to process the fruit, especially at the peak of production.
Finally, he said, there are other problems when the fruit arrives in China because, with the sudden growth in shipments, the logistical problems in Asia to receive the fruit have also grown.
Source: DF.cl / simfruit.cl