Prices paid for Southern Hemisphere blueberries fell by 50 per cent during the 2007/08 season to just US$2.5 per kilogramme, down from an average US$5/kg in the previous season, according to the Chilean Exporters’ Association (Asoex).
The cause of the price decrease was attributed to the frosts, which affected much of South America’s blueberry trade last year, causing harvesting delays of 12 days in some areas of central Chile.
Subsequent high temperatures resulted in the fruit ripening very quickly, Asoex said, causing volumes to come online all at once and leaving shippers with too little space to refrigerate all of the fruit during a year when Chilean production rose by 30 per cent.
The inclement weather also caused setbacks to blueberry harvesting in neighbouring Argentina, meaning both Argentinean and Chilean volumes arrived on the international market at roughly the same time.
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