With the Chilean blueberry season just starting, the industry is expecting to continue diversifying its markets and offer a higher proportion of newer and improved varieties.
The U.S. continues to be the main destination market, with 50 percent of exports.
The Chilean Blueberry Committee is reporting stable export volumes for the 2020-21 season. Chile in recent years has been diversifying its export markets with the biggest growths occurring in Asia and Europe.
During the past season shipments to Asia increased by 20 percent and to Europe by 8 percent. On the other hand, shipments to the U.S. – Chile’s leading blueberry market – decreased in the last two seasons, 1 percent last season and 9 percent the one before that.
For this 2020-21 season, the Blueberry Committee projects exports of approximately 154,000 metric tons (MT) of fresh and frozen blueberries. The estimate for fresh blueberries is a little over 111,000 MT – very similar to the volumes of the last two seasons, representing a 2 percent increase over last season.