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“I am in China and the signals of the cherry markets have been somewhat inconsistent”

As the Chilean cherry industry awaits the slow arrival of the delayed vessel Maersk Saltaro, with over 1,300 containers of cherries on board, in China early next month, the industry body Frutas de Chile noted "it's a very complicated situation" and will wait for the season-ending to tally all numbers.


Frutas de Chile launching the 2024/25 season with the shipment of the first "Cherry Express" vessel from San Antonio Terminal Internacional S.A to China in a record 21 days of shipment.

Iván Marambio, president of the industry body Frutas de Chile, who has returned from China just before the start of the Chinese New Year said, "I would prefer not to talk about the Maersk Saltoro more than it's a very complicated situation and it's in process. We need to wait and see."

Marambio said they are waiting for the end of the season to provide a complete analysis. He also foresees that fruit prices should be stable for the rest of the season. "Regarding the cherry season, we are waiting for the end of the season to see and analyze the several factors that affected this fluctuation of the prices where the big volume has been a big one. Fruit of the rest of the season should have stable prices."

Chilean fruit industry members describe it as a "big crisis" for their industry with the delayed shipment, with about 5 million boxes of cherries on board, that would normally have been sold for an estimated between $60-$130 million in the Chinese market. The 51% higher cherry export volumes sent from Chile to China this season is another factor that has dragged prices lower many industry participants noted.

A large Chilean grower and exporter who is currently in Shanghai, China, and has traveled to many cities and regions in the country to personally oversee arrivals and marketing of the fruit, commented on the situation: "What was published is accurate. This season's volume is a huge increase from the last one. Right now it is still too soon to have definite conclusions, but in addition to the increase in volume, the decrease in price is a fact. I believe the up-to-date returns are based on market price reports which are based on the asking price. These reports are pretty accurate for assessing brand reputation but may have considerable differences to what we finally receive as sales results, so we now need to be a little bit more patient and wait for the results to come in order to get better conclusions."

"Right now I am in China and the signals of the markets have been somewhat inconsistent. Some days the market goes up, the next day it goes down. The reported amount of containers sold in main markets is way below expectations – I don't recall seeing reports with more than 300 containers sold in Guangzhou market so far – but no importer declares not being able to sell all the containers on time... in addition last week I went to the southwest China region and second tier markets wholesalers who were complaining due to not having enough volume... again, there are a lot of mixed comments regarding what has happened, but for sure we must rethink thing everyone's role in this industry in order to keep making it a great opportunity for everyone," he concluded.

For more information:
Iván Marambio
Frutas de Chile
Tel: + 56 2 2472 4700
Email: gmorales@asoex.cl
www.asoex.cl