Continuing with the section “From North to South” we spoke with Peter Stengel, a cherry producer from the Yumbel area, Biobío region, who gave an overview of the season, pointing out that although there is still no official information on the liquidations, the 2022-23 season was, in general, a good campaign.
What is your assessment, as producers and exporters in the central-southern region, of the current cherry campaign?
«There is talk that it was a pretty good season… in my case I have the results ready, because we have an office there and the information is more expeditious that way; I in particular did not have good arrivals, I got 30 mm of rain, which was very complicated for Santina, I lost 50 percent of the Santina, but despite my bad arrivals, I had pre-pandemic values. Kordia was extraordinary, the Regina that we were all afraid of arrived in good shape and sold quickly, which allowed us to get good prices on all sizes and all arrivals. I am super calm and happy with the prices we got, the productions basically in Regina here in the area were not so good, because nothing was done to the Regina, they took advantage of doing a strong pruning to rejuvenate the branches, rejuvenate the tree, give it a little more vigor, so the productions in that sense in Regina were not so good, in the rest they were quite normal, it was not a year of extraordinary productions, it was a year of moderate productions.
How would you rate the logistics of the recent season?
«Logistics worked extraordinarily well, we never had any problems, neither when loading containers in Chile, nor when unloading and clearing customs in China, the process was perfect, even before Chinese New Year it was better; we had no problems with the SAG, Chinese customs, with the PNRSV, everything worked perfectly, the markets were super hot, despite the fruit with problems they ate it super fast and we paid super well.»
Expectations vs. reality: What were the main fears or challenges of the season and what did you really have to face as producers in the central-southern region?
«Regarding the expectations and fears we had, none of that happened. We all thought that logistics were not going to be so good, that we were going to have certain problems, problems that we did not see anywhere. So far I have not heard of anyone having a problem getting on or off a ship in China, or removing containers from ships, or clearing customs. I have not heard of anyone making a negative comment to me about logistics.«.
«The fears we all had were the concentration of volume, a matter of a moment when there were 400-450 containers a day arriving at the market and the truth is that the distribution and strategy of the Chinese clients was extraordinary; they were super prepared to receive the fruit, very well organized, therefore, of those 400 containers, they were sold on the same day or were distributed in the different markets, so in that sense it was extraordinary, which also made the prices super hot, constantly high, because the fruit arrived and left, so there was never any excess stock. And the main fear we all had was what would happen with the Regina and thank God logistics helped a lot with that, the fruit was harvested, processed, loaded onto the ship in the same week, it took 23-24-25 days to arrive in China, it took 2-3 days to reach the market and it was sold, that is, in 30-34 days the fruit was sold and ready.»
What happened to the quality of the fruit?
«I didn't hear in a general way about flavor changes and browning, I did hear in specific cases of Regina that was waiting a bit, 3-4 days on the market, and that according to them it began to brown a bit and change its flavor a bit, but specific cases. We are very happy because the Regina, in one way or another, returned to the status it had, I don't know if it was a pre-pandemic status, but I think that next year it will be in the status it had pre-pandemic, we are all very expectant because the Chinese New Year will be on February 10, 2024; those fears were really strong, we had negative expectations regarding the Regina and the producers who did not harvest the Regina, who pruned it heavily, are now regretting it.»
How many tons and what varieties did they export?
«I had a lot of rain, I lost 50 percent of Santina, Lapins also suffered some, so I reduced my exports considerably; I exported approximately 600 thousand kilos this season, I also fell in Regina, I took advantage of doing some things in Regina, and in Regina I got an average of 6.6 tons per hectare and my historical average is around 14-14.5 tons per hectare, but the sizes were super good which helped to have quite acceptable prices and quite acceptable demand. Regarding my colleagues, I have heard about lower production due to some frosts, the rains that hit us, in the case of Santina it hit right at the break of color, in Lapins right in the middle of the harvest or when they were going to split the harvest, so there is 10-15 percent that was lost due to cracks, but it was not a year of large harvests, which helped everyone to have better sizes and better condition of fruit and I believe that it will also help to have better sales.
What is the challenge for the next season?
«On the producers' side, we need to do a good job of pruning, fertilization, and good phytosanitary management in order to have a season with good flowering, with regulated loads, not excess loads, because usually after a year with not so much load comes a year with quite a lot of load and that's where we have to be careful, so our main challenge is to maintain and hopefully improve our qualities, arrivals, firmness, Brix degrees, our calibers, trying to diversify the packaging a little more; in my case I realized that a 2.5 kilo package pays up to 80 cents more than a 5 kilo package, same fruit, same caliber, same color; So we have to be a little more daring, but we also have a challenge with the packing companies that don't like to pack 2.5 because it gets a bit difficult for them and since there is so much fruit and a shortage of lines, a bottleneck is created and that means that producers have to wait up to 7 days to process, so everyone makes 5-kilo boxes to take out the fruit, freeing up the packing companies, but that plays to the detriment of the product. If the producer could take out, hopefully, as much as possible in 2.5, they would have a much more attractive return than the 5-kilo one.
«The phytosanitary challenge continues, we have to continue working on the phytosanitary protocol with the Chinese SAG for the PNRSV virus and for all the other viruses that we may have; the challenge is to try to maintain the channels, open the channels, continue to keep open those that were opened this year, improve, the logistics will not be less, hopefully we will have logistics similar to this year and pre-pandemic», concluded Peter Stengel, a cherry producer from the Biobío region.
