Leading up to this record Chilean cherry season, the question was if Chile would have the capability of packing and shipping 110 million 5 kg. boxes of cherries in about three months. "It looks like they pulled it off," says Cristian Ramila with Bengard Marketing. Up until week 52 – December 23 through 29 - the country had shipped a total of 96 million boxes of cherries as opposed to 50 million boxes at the same time last year. "It's a very impressive number," Ramila commented.
Unstable market
Out of these 96 million boxes, more than 88 million boxes have been shipped to China while last year at the same time, China had received close to 46 million boxes. Chile's share coming to North America is relatively low. Up until week 52, the United States had received close to 2.6 million boxes and a little over 200,000 boxes entered the Canadian market. Shipments to the U.S. started at the beginning of November and at that time, the market was pretty stable. "However, once December came around, things got more competitive," Ramila shared. "In mid-December, Chile shifted from air shipments to ocean and once the first vessels arrived into the U.S. market, prices went down." By the end of December, the market had become very unstable, and prices showed a wide range.
Preference for Jumbo size and bigger
Pricing for Jumbo size cherries is at the higher end of the range, close to $36/box due to high demand. Extra Large size fruit on the other hand has become less popular and some chain stores opt to only offer Jumbo size cherries. "In a year like this, where supplies are plentiful, buyers have options and supermarket's specs lean heavily towards a preference for Jumbo cherries and larger," Ramila said. "If Chile keeps producing these volumes, they will have to think about eliminating Extra Large cherries from the equation." Bengard Marketing is sold out on Jumbo size and larger and most customers no longer ask for smaller sizes like Extra Large.
With prices having come down, big retail promotions are starting now. "If the fruit arrives in good quality, lower prices will stimulate the demand during the last part of the Chilean season." "While prices are attractive currently, consumption this time of year will never come close to summer demand. The quality is different from domestically grown fruit and with parts of the country being covered in snow, consumption levels are just not the same this time of year." Altogether, Chile will likely ship about 3.6 million boxes of cherries to the U.S. this year.
Final stretch
Chile has entered the final stretch of its cherry season with one or two weeks of harvest being left. As a result, shipments are also winding down. "Official data will be released soon, but according to the projections, Chile was expected to ship about 10 to 15 million boxes in week 1 and 2 of 2025. By week 3, just a few of the later growers in the south will be left."
The end of Chile's cherry season will come as a relief to Peru. The country has been struggling to get business as logistics companies focused on shipping cherries from Chile to China. "This is a very profitable business for them and as a result, Peru was faced with extremely tight availability from a logistics perspective."
For more information:
Cristian Ramila
Bengard Marketing
Tel: +1 (310) 605-5105
[email protected]
www.bengard.us