As “a little summer in San Juan,” the producer and vice president of the Ñuble Farmers Association, Álvaro Gatica, described the scenario of better prices that fresh blueberries are experiencing this season, an item that in Chile is struggling to survive in a market increasingly competitive, which has been inundated by production from other countries, such as Peru, and which demands new varieties, a pending challenge for Ñuble producers, who are also faced with higher costs and difficulties in investing.
“Today we are experiencing a kind of San Juan summer, since, as far as we know, prices have apparently been quite good, both in the United States and in Europe. This, mainly, due to the problems that Peru had with the El Niño Phenomenon, which affected them a lot, since their production dropped by 25%-30%, then a shortage of blueberries was generated worldwide, and that has benefited us,” contextualized Gatica, who is also director of Fedefruta.
In that sense, he stated that “in the next season we are going to return a little to the situation we had before, I hope I am wrong, because if the Peruvians have a normal year, they will return to producing what they were producing.”
Last season 2022-23, the volume of exports of fresh blueberries from Peru exceeded 284 thousand tons -51% share in shipments, however, in Chile, according to the Chilean Blueberry Committee and the consulting firm iQonsulting, it was 87,585 tons, a figure that represented a decrease of 18% compared to the previous 2021-22 season.
Of that volume, 19 thousand tons of fresh blueberries correspond to Ñuble, which represented a 26% drop compared to the previous season. The figure places Ñuble as the second exporting region of blueberries -following Maule-, with a 22% share of the national total.
This 2023-24 season, whose harvest has not yet concluded from Ñuble to the South, the accumulated export volume reaches 61,707 tons (until last week), that is, 16% less than last season, according to the Blueberry Committee report. from Chile and the consulting firm iQonsulting.
The report also indicates that “considering the greater volume already shipped during the peak period and the remainder of the season with a longer end than the previous season, it is expected to reach around 80 thousand tons of fresh blueberry exports, which “It means 8.5% less than what was exported last season.”
In this regard, Gatica commented that the decrease is explained by several factors, “such as the orchards that were abandoned, in fact, I thought the decrease would be greater, but since the price of fresh fruit has been good, little fruit has been left frozen.” and fresh shipments have been privileged.”
He added that, “in Ñuble, production in general is 20%-30% less than last year, due to a weather problem we had in spring, but we are hopeful that this lower production will be compensated by the price issue.” .
Industry downsizing
In the last three years, poor results due to low prices have affected producers, many of whom closed in the red and have chosen to uproot plants, and also exporters, some of which have stopped receiving fresh blueberries, such as Frutemu, in San Carlos; Driscolls, in St. Nicholas; Tempofrut, in San Carlos; and CarSol, in Coihueco, whose subsidiaries Agrícola Los Aromos and Servicios de Exportación Sur underwent a reorganization plan last year to avoid bankruptcy, which defined their reorientation to agribusiness. Likewise, Copefrut, in Curicó, announced in mid-2023 that this will be the last season that it will work with fresh blueberries.
In this regard, Mauro Magnasco, general manager of El Torreon Export, of San Carlos, producer and exporter of blueberries, stated that, in response to the competitiveness crisis faced by the industry, affected by a significant rise in costs and strong international competition, other variables are added.
“There is a super critical variable that is how difficult it is becoming to keep any company alive in Chile, how costs have skyrocketed, how investment is, how labor laws harm companies and how the State abuses taxes” , he sentenced.
Magnasco explained that, in the particular situation of the blueberry industry, the determining problem is that “the majority of the varieties planted in Chile are old; “Since the business in Chile is deteriorating so drastically, the varieties have been aging and becoming obsolete, so there are many orchards that are being uprooted.”
Likewise, he recognized the difficult moment to take credits and undertake the necessary investments to renew varieties. “It is very complicated, with today’s interest rates it is very expensive,” he said.
In his case, the professional commented that “I managed to survive the dark year (2022) with my own capital, I was saved because of that and because we had good credit credibility.” In that sense, he clarified that not all actors are in the same situation and that, being integrated, that is, producing and exporting directly, it has higher margins for the different links in the value chain and allows it to better manage costs.
Varietal replacement
But a key element that has favored the good health of El Torreon Export is that “we have very good genetic varieties. Today the big debate is which varieties to bet on, and that has been the debate of the last decade, because, basically, the consumer increasingly raises their expectations regarding the blueberries they expect to buy in the supermarket, and today the most valued attributes are firmness, size and flavor, basically, and supermarkets, which are the main buyers of blueberries, pay more or give priority to exporters that have a better combination of those three attributes, so, that goes giving advantages to different actors in the chain and the exporters, in general, do not have a single variety, they have a combination, so the producers have made different bets and the exporters today fight for the best quality fruit. And fortunately, 80% of our varieties are very good, and that is because we have made wise investment decisions,” Magnasco summarized.
The producer recalled that, “in 2016 I made the decision to increase my volume of my own blueberries and when I did the research on which varieties to plant, they offered me different options, for example, Hortifrut was selling some that looked very attractive, but following a while A couple of years ago it turned out that these varieties are not desired today because they have problems, so, when a company that develops genetics goes out to sell new genetics, you have to be very careful, because as a producer you need more certainties than just the arguments that you get. the person who is selling them to you can give. I believe that the best opinion one can hear is that of another producer who has that plant in his garden, that he is producing and that he is happy.”
“Today that discussion is stronger than ever, because new genetics continue to appear, where there is a tremendous marketing campaign behind these varieties and with uncontrolled, very expensive royalties and prices, because those are the varieties that are going to be saved in this blueberry debacle worldwide. Today, for example, I am making an investment decision, and I am debating with specialists in the subject, with my clients and with other producers, regarding what to plant, because if one wants to project oneself in the long term in this industry, I need to be constantly renewing myself, but at the same time, I cannot be so intrepid to plant varieties that have not been tested, because I will be the guinea pig, if that variety turns out to be bad, the one who will absorb the damage, all the costs and the years of waiting, it’s going to be me.”
Magnasco described the “debacle” as being at a fever pitch. “70% of Chilean producers have old varieties and do not know what to do, there are many who are withdrawing from the industry, which is why the contraction from 120 million kilos to 70 in two to three years; and there are others that are uprooting the oldest varieties, preserving the good ones and are betting on new varieties or that appear to be good,” however, those who are investing are the minority, he acknowledged. “The people who are investing in blueberries today are, by far, the bravest and most risk-taking, this is an absolutely countercyclical bet and in three more years, perhaps the Chilean industry will have contracted even more, and the few remaining actors Maybe we will start to see a light at the end of the road and this will be a reasonable business once more.”
Álvaro Gatica shares the same opinion, who warned that, “in the future, I see that, if we do not have a varietal change, things are going to get complicated for us. The varieties that we have today, unfortunately, are old, they do not meet the conditions that the Peruvian fruit has, but there are varieties that we can have, and that we have seen that they do well, with very good prices, but the problem is the investments. , which are very expensive, as a reference, only in plants it is $20 million per hectare, which is a lot of money and is not easy to recover, in addition, the credit conditions are not the most convenient either, with interest rates that are quite high, despite the rumors that a significant drop is coming, so it is not easy for medium-sized farmers like us to do so.”
The leader specified that, currently, it is mainly the largest companies that are making these investments. “Many of these new varieties are licensed, that means that these licenses are generally held by exporting companies, and those companies are either planting these varieties themselves or they are giving them to some farmers to do so, but the farmer has to pay them the same, and they are obliged to deliver the fruit to those companies. “They are very good varieties and the economic results today are 1.5-2.0 dollars over traditional varieties.”
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