The Chilean fruit sector has suffered from little cold hours causing lower sprouting and reducing production volumes. 

Such is the case for kiwifruit, which, according to Carlos Cruzat, president of the Chilean Kiwifruit Commission, will reach similar production volumes than in 2023, approximately 130,ooo tons. 

"We see a delay of about 10 days, it is expected that the fruit will have a similar size to last year. For now, we are generating dry matter in the fruit, so it is important to have good irrigation," says Cruzat.

Cruzat pointed out that last year shipments with System Approach to the United States grew enormously, "which we value and the case of Brazil has also been growing, which allows us to deliver the fruit in better conditions."

Industry

Cruzat also took a look at the global industry, indicating that the northern hemisphere will close a little earlier because there was less fruit. The southern hemisphere season is going to have considerably more fruit than last year because New Zealand grew by 40% in yellow kiwis and 30% in green kiwis compared to 2023.

He indicates that the volume of yellow and green fruit represents almost 150,000 tons more supply, which is almost all of Chile's production, "therefore, the volume of supply from the southern hemisphere, although in the case of green, is below historical levels, when adding the growing volume of yellow fruit, will show significant supply from the southern hemisphere."

Yellow Kiwifruit

Cultivation of yellow kiwifruit has not increased hectares in Chile, but new varieties are arriving and will be tested.

"Some come from the Rivoira group, Jingold, and others come from the KiwiCo group, which is a consortium that handles materials from China," says Cruzat.

Projections

In the long-term, Cruzat says the fruit has had a very good cycle, which is the result of world volumes, the increase in demand due to Covid 19, and a better supply of fruit from Chile, all of which has increased interest in planting.

He explained that before the pandemic there was an upward trend in world demand "Covid was a great support and today that trend is maintained. But to maintain it, we are going to carry out promotional campaigns in India, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil, which are large and important markets for us."

Based on this, he indicates that they seek to reinforce the idea of consumption over time, considering the health benefits of kiwifruit.

He concluded by saying that in the US market, they are working with supermarkets and social media networks to provide nutritional information and carry out promotional activities with coupons. In the case of India, they are going to participate in some fairs and the strategy will be oriented to open the market a little bit to other cities that are consuming more and more kiwifruit.