Forever Fresh of Wilimington, DL reports anticipating good volumes of Chilean cherries and stone fruit as well as Peruvian grapes this season.
The importer notes its first two Chilean fruits this season are cherries and stone fruit and are looking “pretty good.” The Chilean cherry season is underway, and Chile’s total exports are expected to increase. The stone fruit season has just started.
Chile-based Garcés fruit – an owner of Forever Fresh is one of the world’s largest cherry exporters. It has been shipping steady volumes into the U.S. over at least a decade. The company may see a gradual increase in shipments to the U.S. as Garcés’ new plantings come into production, but there may not be a rise in total volumes from Chile despite an expected production increase of up to 15 percent. This is because the volumes out of Chile to the U.S. have been decreasing every year, with the volumes increasing in Chile.
The additional volume probably will be exported to Asia rather than coming to the U.S.
The stone fruit harvest started in mid-November, with the first arrivals in the U.S. set for early December. Additionally, there will be larger volumes of newer varieties – especially of plums and nectarines – from trees planted in Chile over the past five to six years.
The Peruvian grape season is underway, with expectations of a significant increase in volume over last year. There will be an increase in total production in Peru, although it will vary between different areas, but in general expectations are for around a 20 percent increase.
Forever Fresh’s first containers of Peruvian grapes arrived in mid-November, with the peak season set to begin in December.