Argentina drive: increased volumes and market recovery after the climatic problems of recent seasons

The Chinese New Year celebrations are 30 days away, so we wanted to know how the Argentinian cherry industry is doing ahead of this holiday, where cherries are an important gift item.

Portal Frutícola spoke to the director general of the Argentine Chamber of Integrated Cherry Producers (CAPCI), Aníbal Caminiti, who commented that companies exporting to China are managing volumes and containers are already on their way before Chinese New Year.

"We have to consider that Argentina exported 77% of its exports last season by air, which means that the regions that are still harvesting and producing, such as the province of Chubut and Santa Cruz, with the newest cherries, are shipping by air."

Caminiti commented that the strategy in the south is aimed at fruit arriving later in the markets 'and we are not thinking about the Chinese New Year market, but rather to arrive with later fruit for the month of March in particular and some sea shipments that could arrive in early April'.

The season

When asked how he has observed the current season, the CAPCI General Manager explained that what has been observed this year is that the Chinese market remains strong within the percentage that Argentina usually handles. However, the US has also been very interesting this year'.

He added that 'for Argentina, China accounts for just over 30% of the exportable volume and the US also accounts for just over 30% of the volume. Up until the first week of January, China has seen an increase in shipments, but so far there has been nothing exceptional'.

Caminiti recalled that the strategies of the Argentinean industry are being defined with the objective of coexisting with the strong presence of Chilean cherries, not only in China but in all markets. "Therefore, in any market, the Chilean presence determines the price, which is why our strategies to maintain our competitiveness are based on deseasonalisation from the Chilean supply package, because we will never be able to compete on volume."

He explained that they are working on differentiation and cherry quality. "In this regard, we are creating some products, such as the Valle de los Antiguos cherry denomination of origin, and we will start working on this for next season."

He also commented that they are working on a quality protocol for international markets, especially the Chinese market, to establish a quality standard for Argentinean cherries.

Caminiti concluded by saying that 'we are having a good year, recovering volumes and exportable balances that we had lost due to climatic problems in recent seasons, so we are satisfied. We are having a very good season, and we still have the last phase to lift, which is the late cherry, and so far everything is going well'.

Source: Portal Frutícola

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