Chilean Blueberry Committee showcases industry advances

The Chilean Blueberry Committee has launched a new quality seal for its member growers to help differentiate their product on the international market. The seal was unveiled at the first-ever Blueberry Day, held at Hortifrut’s Virquenco farm recently to mark the official launch of the 2024/25 campaign.

The committee’s president, Ruy Barbosa, said the label will be used by member companies that are implementing best practices and renewing varieties to ensure that their offer arrives in the market in optimal condition. “The central objective is to transmit confidence and security to our clients. This seal seeks to become a key element for the dissemination and strengthening of the image of Chilean blueberries,” he explained.

According to the committee’s first official forecast of the new season, the 2024/25 export crop is expected to weigh in at 135,501 tonnes, an increase of 3.2 per cent on last year. Within this, fresh blueberries are forecast to reach 80,5012 tonnes (a fall of 6.7 per cent on 2023/24), while frozen blueberries are set to grow 22.2 per cent to 55,000 tonnes.

“This drop of almost 7 per cent in fresh blueberry exports is not bad news for us, but rather reflects the varietal replacement that is taking place in the industry, which will allow us to deliver better fresh blueberries to the markets,” Barbosa noted. “The new varieties in this season’s shipments are expected to increase by 26 per cent, amounting to more than 16 thousand tonnes.”

The Blueberry Day was attended by leading industry players, along with agriculture minister Esteban Valenzuela and US ambassador to Chile Bernadette Meehan. Frutas de Chile president, Iván Marambio, said the event was an opportunity to showcase the advances the industry has been making, “especially in relation to the renewal of new varieties, the improvement of the logistics chain, the implementation of better and greater technology, in sustainability, and in general, with what we are doing to increase the consumption of blueberries in the world”.

The US is the main market for Chilean blueberries, accounting for almost 50 per cent of total shipments. Marambio said he hoped the US authorities would extend the Systems Approach – currently permitted from blueberries grown in Ñuble and Biobio – to other regions of the country ike O’Higgins and Maule.