Strong season for Chilean lemons despite small fruit sizing - FreshFruitPortal.com

Strong season for Chilean lemons despite small fruit sizing

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Strong season for Chilean lemons despite small fruit sizing

While a lack of rain in central Chile over recent months has led to a smaller lemon sizing, volumes and prices in some key markets have been a cause for celebration. lemons_65475466

Cabilfrut export manager Felipe Martin told www.freshfruitportal.com the harvest had started at least a couple of weeks earlier than normal due to mild temperatures, and the country's year-on-year lemon exports were significantly higher.

"In general the volumes that have left from Chile to date have been more than double what they were last year," he said.

"This is partly due to the very little rain which has meant harvesting has been able to continue without interruption."

The month of June was the driest in decades for the Chilean capital of Santiago, and much of the country's lemon production is based in the surrounding central regions.

Martin said about 50% of Cabilfrut's crop had so far been harvested, with the low rainfall having made a negative impact on fruit sizing.

The company sends on average 65% of its exports to the U.S. and 35% to Japan, and the marketing season kicked off to a strong start in both destinations.

"Japan and the U.S. started off very well with very high prices, although toward the end of June much larger volumes of Chilean lemons were arriving to both markets and so prices dropped somewhat, especially for the smaller fruit, but they’re both still really good markets."

A representative from another major exporter, Propal, echoed many of Martin's comments on challenges and positives for the season.

"We've had very large yields in the fields this year due to the good weather, and we've already harvested almost 80% of the lemons we're expecting," agronomist Jose Miguel Varela said.

"So we're very advanced in the season, the only problem was the size caused by the lack of rain. We've had lots of 165 and 200 sizes, and that might be a problem in the market.

"But we've had very good yields. Most of our growers have had about 40-50 [metric] tons per hectare."

Propal exports a little more than half of its lemon crop to the U.S., with about 32% to Japan, 6% to South Korea and 5% to Europe.

"The markets have been very good. So far more fruit has arrived in U.S. than Japan, but in both markets the prices are very strong. The only concern is about the small sizing."

Miguel added he expected around 3 million cartons equivalent to 17.2 kilograms (38 pounds) each of lemons to be exported from Chile in total this season.

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

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