The first air shipment of cherries grown in the Neuquen and Rio Negro provinces of northern Patagonia will leave Argentina’s Presidente Peron International Airport on Friday.
Aerolineas Argentinas will fly 100 tonnes of the fruit direct from Neuquen to Hong Kong, rather than passing through Buenos Aires, Neuquen’s minister of territorial development Leandro Bertoya told LMNeuquen.com.
Some 70 per cent of Patagonia’s cherry exports are now shipped by air, with Patagonian-grown cherries accounting for 66 per cent of the nation’s total cherry exports.
The 2013/14 export season is forecast to hit 3,000 tonnes, with the Patagonian cherry harvest running from October to December and arriving in Asian markets as demand for cherries increases ahead of the Chinese New Year.
Over twenty years, exports of cherries from the Latin American nation have increased 12.4 times, from 142 tonnes in 1994 to 1,759 tonnes in 2013, peaking at 2,732 tonnes in 2010.
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