At the height of the season, Cool Carriers will offer two weekly sailings from Valparaíso to the US East Coast
Terminal Portuario Valparaíso (TPV) launched its 2025/26 fruit export season by celebrating the inaugural call of the Koru, a newly built ship belonging to Cool Carriers.
The vessel, which is part of the direct service to the US East Coast (USEC) offered by the reefer shipping company, is scheduled to set sail on 4 December, transporting a consignment of cherries and blueberries to Philadelphia.
Heralding the “milestone”, Ricardo Barckhahn, general manager of Cool Carriers Chile, commented: “This is the result of a conversation with exporters, where it was determined that there is a demand to be able to deliver fruit, mainly products like cherries and blueberries, to the US two weeks before Christmas”.
Cool Carriers has just completed a programme of 20 newbuilds and announced plans to build a further ten, which should be delivered between 2026 and 2028.
TPV’s general manager, Manuel Cañas, said the port will initially handle one ship per week, rising to two in February. “Handling two refrigerated cargo ships weekly, fully utilising both berths, is a tremendous challenge for us as a terminal, for our staff, and for the market,” he said, adding that the terminal expects to handle 160,000 pallets of exports this season.
Franco Gandolfo, general manager of Empresa Portuaria Valparaíso (EPV), said this was slightly more cargo than last year, as “the season looks promising, the weather is favourable, and a good harvest is beginning”.
According to Claudia Soler, executive director of the Chilean Cherry Committee, the two fast weekly services that will be available before Christmas and New Year’s are very important to the cherry business as they allow exports to reach the market in 12 days with fruit of very good quality and condition.
“The US market is our second most important market [for cherries], and last year we exported approximately 20,000 tonnes there. We expect that volume to grow this year; significant volumes have already been shipped to the US, and we are investing in promotional campaigns. We have also increased our resources, and the idea is to carry out activations at points of sale,” she noted.
Andrés Armstrong, executive director of the Chilean Blueberry Committee, commented: “Our estimates for this season are very similar to those of the previous season”.
He added that for some years now, Chile has seen a steady improvement in its blueberry export volume in recent years, thanks largely to the varietal replacement that is underway.
