After two bouts of heavier than predicted rain over the past two weeks across central Chile, cherry producers have started to see some cracking in early varieties of Santina and Royal dawn reportedly seeing up to 20% damage.

Because assessments of the potential damage are still being made as the industry closely tracks the weather, exporters and producers say they are careful not to comment too early. Some say they observed the following: “Santina cherries are affected as they were almost ready to harvest. Over the past weekend we had rain on both Friday and Saturday (11,12 November). Most of the rain was in the metropolitan regions 6 and 7, this includes Rancagua, Curico and Talca. Last week I went to see some Santina, which already had rain, now with this new bout of rain there is Santina with colour, which was nearing harvesting, that was cracking. This season we will have to take a lot of care in packing.”

The heavier than predicted bouts of rain means a wetter spring for most of these production areas with Rancagua recording 35 mm, Curico 25 mm and Talca 28 mm. While it does not seem like much rain, but because the Santina and other early varieties are about to be harvested the rains have a bigger impact. Producers have applied protection measures such as plastic covers to prevent cracking. Some producers also used helicopters and drones to dry out orchards. Technical experts say the disease impact is higher with more rain incidents with producers having to spray a lot more to prevent rot setting in.

Another exporter said the feedback they received from growers thus far has been mixed. “We’re hearing quite different things from producers with some saying the damage they see is likely less than 20%. Royal dawn is quite affected, more so than Santina.”

According to Claudia Soler, Executive Director of the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (Asoex), they will issue a new crop estimate, that takes into account the impact of the rain and other factors, by today (Friday) or on Monday for the latest. In the first estimate the expectation for this 2023/2024 season of cherry exports is between 90 and 100 million boxes, compared to last year’s 83 million boxes exported.

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com