With a focus on the challenges currently facing the cherry industry and the opportunities offered by varietal renewal, ANA Chile® organized the seventh edition of ExpoCerezos in Curicó on August 12.
The event brought together growers, consultants and industry professionals to analyze the results of the latest season, the agronomic and commercial performance of new varieties, and the outlook for the coming seasons.
In a year marked by challenging results, one of the main messages to emerge during the event was that, in the face of increasingly demanding markets and higher available volumes, competitiveness will have to be built through a combination of quality, harvest timing, size, firmness, flavor and fruit condition upon arrival.
The 2025/26 season also marked the first harvest with significant volumes for the new early varieties managed by ANA Chile®, with approximately 1.6 million boxes (5 kg equivalent), drawing attention to their earlier harvest compared with Santina and their ability to produce fruit with a high percentage of sizes above 2J.
The commercial outlook analyzed during ExpoCerezos reinforces the need to move from a strategy based primarily on volumes toward a more differentiated offering and greater market diversification. Pablo Corral of Ranco Cherries emphasized that China will continue to be the main market for Chilean cherries, although other destinations will gradually become more important.
According to Corral, in this new scenario the market is rewarding premium fruit, particularly cherries that combine good firmness, high sugar levels, freshness, uniform color and sizes starting from 2J, characteristics that are essential to ensure a positive consumer experience and encourage repeat purchases.
This perspective gives particular relevance to the work that ANA Chile® is carrying out in genetic evaluation and selection, both with currently commercial varieties and with new selections being evaluated at ANA's experimental centers and by different growers located from Ovalle to Osorno.
Among the varieties that attracted particular attention during the event was Sweet Aryana®, whose performance in recent seasons confirms its significant potential to complement Chile's early-season cherry supply. Monitoring data presented by consultant Luis Valenzuela showed that, under suitable growing conditions, it can be harvested approximately 5-8 days before Santina.
In addition to this earliness, the variety produces visually attractive fruit with good size and brightness, reaching 18-20 °Brix and firmness values ranging from 80 to 90 Durofel, while also showing lower susceptibility to pitting and lizard skin than Santina and other varieties.
Agronomic data also show fertile and stable fruiting spurs and lower thermal requirements to reach flowering and ripening. However, to fully express these characteristics, it is essential to properly regulate vigor and crop load.
The growing importance of Sweet Aryana® is also reflected in projections by ANA Chile®: after exceeding one million boxes in the 2025/26 season, the baseline scenario, considering orchards planted to date, forecasts approximately 1.6 million boxes in 2026/27 and 2.8 million by 2028/29, making it one of the fastest-growing varieties within the portfolio.
Nimba was another major focus of ExpoCerezos, particularly because of the lessons learned over recent seasons and the work that growers, consultants and ANA Chile® are carrying out to continuously improve its quality.
Its main strength continues to be its exceptionally early harvest window: depending on the growing area and agronomic management, it can be harvested between 14 and 18 days before Santina, with the potential to achieve average fruit sizes above 28-30 mm and even fruit exceeding 32 mm.
Field experiences presented during the event recorded average firmness values of up to 77.5 Durofel, demonstrating the potential to obtain fruit in very good quality condition when appropriate agronomic practices are adopted.
This was also emphasized by Ignacio Lavandero, director of Agr. Mercedario: practical experience gained with the variety in the Pencahue area has made it possible to identify more precisely key factors such as crop load and vigor regulation, light and cover management, nutrition and harvest timing.
In particular, it was emphasized that size, color and firmness must be managed as interconnected variables, avoiding excessive crop loads and excessive heat accumulation under plastic covers.
These advances explain why ANA Chile® and several growers continue to maintain a positive outlook for Nimba: the projections presented estimate that its production could increase from approximately 197,000 boxes in 2025/26 to more than 660,000 by 2028/29.
The various presentations at ExpoCerezos 2026 therefore converged on a common conclusion: the future of the Chilean cherry industry will increasingly depend on the ability to produce fruit with the quality actually demanded by the market and for which the market is willing to pay a premium.
Genetics opens up significant opportunities to extend commercial windows and improve fruit characteristics, but its potential can only be fully realized when supported by an appropriate package of agronomic practices, the correct selection of production areas, crop load regulation, and measures aimed at preserving fruit quality and condition.
In this context, the results achieved with Sweet Aryana®, the continued potential shown by Nimba and other early varieties, together with the new selections currently under evaluation, allow ANA Chile® to look optimistically toward a broader and more competitive varietal offering.
The challenge for the coming seasons will be to turn these new genetics into a tangible commercial advantage in the market, capable of offering consumers cherries that are large, firm, flavorful and consistently high in quality, while providing growers with better alternatives to face an industry that has now definitively entered a new phase.
Source: anachile.cl
Image source: Stefano Lugli
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