The damage to the Chilean blueberry crop caused by last weekend’s heavy rains is not as serious as previously expected according to the Chilean Blueberry Committee.
The rains struck as Jewel, Star and O’Neal were being harvested in the VII and Metropolitan Regions, but CBC’s executive director Andrés Armstrong said the losses to the overall export volume would be minor. “We estimate that around 20-30 per cent of the remaining crop was lost, which equates to some 1,000 tonnes,” he said.
Armstrong also noted that a strike last week by public sector workers including customs officials and the Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) had caused some disruption to shipments. “The industry was aiming to ship around 5,000 tonnes last week but in the end only 4,300 tonnes were dispatched,” he said, adding that the extra volume had merely been held up, rather than lost. Peak shipments were expected to get underway in week 49.
The official data shows that 8,905 tonnes of blueberries have been shipped to date, a 105 per cent increase on last season’s export total and 34 per cent more than in 2012/13.
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