For the past decade, Chile's planted cherry area maintained steady growth, due to its profitability. There is a high demand for Chilean cherries from the Chinese market, which receives over 91 percent of Chilean cherry export volume. Post estimates cherry production in marketing year (MY) 2024/25 to reach 500,000 metric tons (MT), a 6.8 increase over MY2023/24. Chilean cherry exports are forecast to increase by 7.6 percent, reaching 445,000 MT in MY 2023/25. In MY 2024/25, Post estimates nectarine and peach production to total 173,000 MT, a 0.6 percent increase over the previous year. Peach and nectarine exports are forecast to increase by 0.8 percent, totalling 116,000 metric tons.
Production
In MY2024/25, Post estimates cherry area planted will reach 67,000 hectares (HA), which represents a 5.5 percent increase over MY2023/24 (Table 1). For the past decade, the Cherry area has maintained steady growth due to its profitability and high demand, especially from the Chinese market (Figure 1). In MY 2023/24, Cherry area planted grew by 3.1 percent, reaching 63,945 hectares. Post estimates area harvested at 58,000 hectares since many cherry orchards were recently planted and are still unproductive. Cherry production takes place around 4-5 years after planting.
Chilean cherry production volume has grown consistently year over year, following the increase in area planted. However, in MY2023/24, despite the growth in area planted, production decreased by 0.2 percent. Climatic conditions in MY2023/24 were characterized by a warm winter and a rainy spring, which reduced cherry yields and resulted in lower-than-expected production.
In MY 2024/25, rainfall during the winter has been abundant and temperatures during the winter have been sufficiently low. Because of the projected increase in area planted and assuming regular climatic conditions during the spring, Post estimates production MY 2024/25 to reach 500,000 MT, a 6.8 increase over MY2023/24.
Click here to read the full report.
Source: apps.fas.usda.gov