A further table grape cut is predicted by Chile’s fruit export association Asoex,, following heavy and unseasonal rains earlier this year.
Asoex President Ronald Bown Fernández, in a third estimate for the 2020-21 season, points out the forecast is now for 64.6 million boxes (8.2 kilo-equivalent).
The figure would mark a 12 percent decline from last, off from the 10 percent decline announced in late February – and a 22 percent drop from the season’s original January estimate of 82 million boxes.
He added that this third forecast of table grape exports for this season “is the best estimate that can be made to date. We hope that, as time goes by, this projection will not decrease”.
Bown also noted that this third estimate corresponds to information provided by 38 companies, which together represent 59% of the volume exported last season (2019-2020).
He said that the main decreases in Chile are being seen in white varieties. It is expected that 14.2 million boxes of green grapes will be exported, 5.7 million boxes of black grapes, 28.8 million boxes of red grapes, and 16.2 million boxes of Red Globes.