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On January 22, Chinese health authorities found Covid-19 on boxes of imported Chilean cherries. Despite the very low risk of contamination from food or food packaging, the news went viral and strongly affected all cherry imports at the peak of the campaign for Chinese New Year celebrations. More than 200 posts were published on social media discouraging consumers from buying imported cherries. 

Photo:ProChile

Chile’s avocado production area is expected to increase slightly in 2020, following 6 years of shrinkage. Th3 MY20201 crop is expected to total around 220,000 tons, with exports reaching 145,000 tons, assuming planted area and productivity remain unchanged. Hass avocado accounts for almost 90% of the total 30,143 hectares, according to ODEPA data. Chileans consume around 30% of the domestic avocado production (graph 1).

Photo: The Organic Producers Cooperative

At its General Constitutive Meeting last week, the Organic Producers Cooperative of Chile, Organicoop, was founded in Curicó. The entity is made up of the companies AFE Orgánico, Agrícola y Forestal El Yacal, Agrícola y Comercial Asturias, Agrícola Santa Isabel de Cato (ASICSA), Exportadora Frutifor, Exportadora Curicó and the Agroecology R&D Center, which produce apples, pears, blueberries, as well as other products under organic certification in Maule and Ñuble.

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Chile’s first avocado campaign exporting to Australia has already seen almost 150 tons of Hass shipped across the Pacific. On August 4th, Chile became only the second country, after New Zealand, to be authorised to export fresh Hass avocados to the Australian market. Data published by ASOEX (Association of Fruit Exporters), Chile has sent 148 tons of Hass avocados to Australia since Chile’s export season began on September 1st. Australians are among the world’s largest consumers of avocado, consuming 3.8 kilos per capita each year.

With South Korea’s domestic production of grapes falling, the country is relying ever more on imports. This opens up opportunities for the world’s major producers, especially Chile, with whom South Korea signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2004. Despite government efforts to protect the domestic grape industry by imposing higher tariffs, the share of imported grapes continues to rise. Chile, which benefitted from its early FTA access, has the highest market share. However, US grape imports have also been on the rise since South Korea removed its off-season tariffs in 2016.

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A major fraud in the world of raspberries is laid bare in a report by Reuters. In January 2017, Chilean customs inspectors acted on a tip from a whistleblower that the country's prized crop of raspberries was under threat. Inspectors raided the offices of Frutti di Bosco, a little-known fruit trading company on the second floor of a tower block in downtown Santiago. The files, company data and sales records they seized revealed a food trading racket that spanned three continents.

The Chilean Blueberry Committee forecasts stable export volumes in 2020-21 despite the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The CBC is working to diversify its export markets, given the current overdependence on the US and China. Although shipments fell to Chile’s main market, the US (-13%), exports to Asia and Europe were up 20% and 8% respectively.