In 2024, the celebration will take place 19 days later than in 2023.
On this same date last year, the cherry industry was looking with great concern at what the Chinese New Year 2023 would be like; and this celebration, which marks a before and after in the commercialization of cherries in the Asian country, would be on January 22; producers and exporters would face one of the narrowest commercial windows in the history of cherries in Chile and, without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges.
The nervousness ranged from the field to the packing house, the shipping companies, air transport; everyone knew that it would be a complex year and that greater efforts had to be made and strategies implemented to break dormancy, control frost, homogenize flowering and harvesting and have a workforce that could withstand anything.
This is how the 2022-23 cherry season in Ovalle started in mid-October, with a few days' delay due to the low spring temperatures; the first shipments to China, the main destination for Chilean cherries, were made by air and the craze for the delicacies was total.
The season thus began with several additional pressures due to the early Chinese New Year: the Covid-19 restrictions still in force in China and the closure that the Asian country maintained due to the pandemic. However, after a short time, the Chinese authorities began to reduce controls, until reaching a total opening that allowed even the commercial teams of the exporters, after two years, to travel and supervise the arrival of their fruit at their destination.
«The happiness of the Chinese was felt. You have to understand that they were with a country that was much stronger than any other country in the world, so for them it was like opening up to the world again, they were locked down; there was probably some internal tourism in the last 6-8 months, where people started to move around within China, but with so many restrictions, that this new freedom was felt a lot, and that helped the season a lot. What did catch my attention, because one heard that in these three years the Chinese economy was suffering a lot, but when I returned to China I found a more prepared country, a country with many investments, with many new things, building, a country that did not fall asleep (…) these three years they were internally concerned about strengthening the country and one thing that was done a lot with so much protection of imported products due to the risk of Covid-19, which boosted the local product as a safer product. I was in China a month ago and the prices you find for local blueberries and cherries are higher than those of Chilean products, so the market is accepting their local products as high-end and that is also good for us because it keeps sales for more months of the year at high prices," commented Victor Maroto, Commercial Manager of Fruttita.
Without a doubt, the 2022-23 season was one of the most challenging for the cherry industry, as confirmed by Isabel Quiroz, Founder and Director of iQonsulting: «We had a super concentrated season and everyone who is working in the cherry industry remembers it, the packing plants were full of shifts and that was very hard to experience; I think it was one of the most challenging seasons in terms of internal logistics in Chile and, therefore, we will not experience that this season.«.
Chinese New Year 2024
In 2024, the Chinese New Year (CNY) will be celebrated on February 10, that is, 19 days later than in 2023; this means that producers and exporters will have almost three more weeks of commercial window before the aforementioned holiday; however, today, 4 months away from the start of a new cherry season, it is worth asking what are the main challenges of a late CNY for the Chilean cherry industry.
«It is not the first time that we have such late seasons and we have had late seasons with very good results, therefore, I think that we should not be so scared of the results, but we should be very concerned about the quality; today there is a very simple issue, the Chinese are willing to pay prices, let's say high, for a good product, therefore today we have a very important challenge, in a period where we can think that there is less interest in cherry consumption, because the CNY will be further away, we have to understand that the Chinese can consume cherries every day at home; today what we need is an active market, beyond the concept of a gift. which can be two to three weeks before the Chinese New Year, we will have a period from January 5 to 15 where the main sale of cherries will be to the consumer, So the key is to have a good product, today there is no other way around it, there is no strategy to delay the fruit and harvest the fruit 20 days later, today we have to concentrate on the best product, that is the solution," explained Victor Maroto, Commercial Manager of Fruttita.
A season in which time is not of the essence, but other aspects of great importance for the success of the next campaign are.
«We will probably be a little more spaced out in terms of the work we have to do to fill the ships and be in China on time, so from that perspective it won't be so challenging. However, we can't just sit there thinking it's all going to be easy, because we also have to look at what the weather will be like, how the weather conditions will be to find the ripeness of the cherries at the optimum point for harvesting, which is something I've been foolishly touching on, because sometimes we wait a little and a portion of our cherries go a little too late or we harvest them early as well, and that affects the quality of arrival and, therefore, the experience that the consumer has to have with our cherries, and we can't rest on that; it's much better to harvest the cherries at their optimum point and have a few more days of storage, which won't be that many either, to be able to be there three weeks before the Chinese New Year, since during those three weeks there is the greatest sale», warned Isabel Quiroz.
In the orchard, efforts are not focused on getting out as early as possible, as in the last season; producers know that it is time to take advantage of the slack that the late Chinese New Year will offer, and put their efforts into quality.
«Today, producers' doubts are mainly related to maintaining productivity and improving the calibre characteristics, which is the indicator that probably influences this. Today, producers are worried about this, about getting the product to its destination in the best conditions to be more competitive.» said Carlos Tapia, specialist advisor in cherry production and Technical Director of Avium.
Looking ahead to next season
As Carlos Tapia points out, the producers' concerns are related to the production itself; this was confirmed by Carlos Contreras, who has a 10-hectare cherry orchard with Satina and Lapins varieties in the Comalle sector, Curicó province: «The main (concerns) are caliber and how the weather is looking, they say that spring may be a bit complex, that there may be late rains, I think that is the most complex thing we have so far.«.
Ronald Farías, Agricultural Administrator at Agrícola Santa Graciela, commented that despite the late Chinese New Year, they will still use strategies to advance the harvest, a task that has a more logistical than commercial objective, he explained.
«I mainly agree with the issue of size. We have more or less the strategy formed and we are going to go all out this year, advancing as much as we can, matching vegetative development, whether flowering; we are very interested in size and in getting out early, regardless of the Chinese New Year, because perhaps we have better control over the harvest, the labor force, etc.", the agricultural administrator reflected.
In terms of sales, Iván Marambio, President of Asoex, who is currently in China, announced through the Instagram platform that they are already working on the new cherry campaign for China, South Korea and India: “Great things are coming this season, stay tuned”, Marambio concluded.
