Uruguay is an accomplished and renowned sender of citrus to the UK market but has been slower off the mark when it comes to exports of apples when compared to its South American neighbours.
Northern Uruguay has been exporting top quality easy-peelers for eager Brits to enjoy in the summer months for decades now and together with the south of the country can offer oranges, lemons and even grapefruit too.
Less well known is Uruguayan deciduous fruit production with apples and pears steadily gaining in importance.
Production is centred in the southern portion of a country that appears dwarfed by next-door neighbours Brazil and Argentina, but which can actually fit Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland within its borders with room to spare.
The main growing areas are in the departments of Canalones and San José close to Montevideo and therefore ideally located for its port facilities with a minimal overland journey from packhouse to quayside.
The sector received a major boost from a Uruguayan national programme introduced by the government in 1997. The farm development and conversion programme (Predeg) has been subsidising growers’ conversion to modern varieties and has enabled savvy producers to plant apples for the first time alongside their existing citrus business. Predeg did not come without conditions, however, and a partial contribution to the investment required to plant came with the proviso that cultivars had to demonstrate both the best production characteristics as well as market acceptation.
Those varieties classified by Predeg as qualifying have seen volumes increase steadily over the past eight years from a third of apple plantations in 1997 to considerably more than half. Although critics argue that there are too many qualifying varieties. The criticism they level is that with such a broad range of varieties, it is actually making the process of achieving a critical mass in terms of volume and homogeneity of quality a difficult and slow process. On the up have been Fuji and Royal Gala, as well as Red Chief, while new plantings of Granny Smith are declining. And even more recently plantings of Cripps Pink mean that production of Pink Lady is enjoying exponential growth.
Agrisur Carl is a San-José based co-operative of about 12 members and is a good example of the changing focus in fruit production. “We grow on about 300ha and while we only had about 500 tonnes of Pink Lady and Cripps Pink this year that figure is going up dramatically year on year as more trees come into production,” said the co-operative’s Miguel Tomma. “At the moment our main market is Italy, but we expect to expand into other markets in time. We are citrus producers and have now moved into apples as well.”
The move appears to be a wise one. “We already export citrus to the UK through Urud’or and we are hoping to use the same channels for our apple production,” adds Tomma. “For us it is a case of the citrus and top-fruit production cycles being complementary so that we are able to use all our facilities and labour year-round, which is much more cost-effective.”
Uruguay also needs to build on the reputation it has in the region for its top-fruit and communicate that message further a field. “Up to now competition for Uruguayan apples has mainly been from Argentina, but Brazil is expanding [its production] rapidly,” explains Domingo Quintans of national fruit, horticulture and small farm-animals board, Junagra. “Uruguay’s advantages lie in its production of inputs and also its own particular taste characteristics.” Agrisur agrees. “The key thing is in our flavour - fruit has a sweet-crisp combination that is renowned in the region,” Tomma says. “It is a stronger flavour than the Chileans can produce, for example, although their fruit may be more aesthetically pleasing than ours, our apples have a definite, crispy-crunchy edge to them. This is down to a number of technical aspects as well as the natural production conditions.”
A further advantage is the marketing window. Uruguay’s harvest usually begins 15-20 days ahead of either Chile or Argentina and shipping times from Montevideo are shorter than from Chile. “I wouldn’t say it is competition, more that we are complementary to other South American sources because of earlier availability,” says Tomma.
Volumes may seem low compared to the might of Brazil or Chile, with this season’s harvest estimated at 77,342t by Junagra. But it is increasing steadily year on year - up 16 per cent on 2004. There is also a clear tendency towards earlier fruiting varieties in recognition of one of Uruguay’s main advantages on the marketplace, namely its early marketing opportunity and very early cultivars and clones now represent an estimated 13 per cent of production as growers renew their orchards.
Another San José firm keen to expand its apple export portfolio is Eco Fruticola - Uruguay’s largest pear which also trades as Uruguay’s oldest wholesale company under the name Milton J Ceretta. “We have production of Red Delicious and Granny Smith and more recently Royal Gala of which we have new plantings,” says md Milton Ceretta. “Volumes are going up here in Uruguay, 30-40 per cent for example, say compared to 10 years ago.” Eco Fruticola exports to Brazil but believes that the future holds many more possibilities. “We see the future in exports - ours is a tiny internal market - and I believe we need to get into external markets, open up new paths wherever we can to the UK, the rest of the EU.”
Although the area under apple production in Uruguay has been on the decline over the last 20 years, the number of plants has grown, reflecting an increase in the density of production and therefore a larger scale commercial approach rather than smaller growing units mainly run as family businesses and as mixed farms. Yields per plant have also increased to more than 43kg a plant in the case of the largest, specialised apple producers.
Irrigation is also much more widespread as growers have realised the quality boost it gives their fruit aiding in both uniformity of size and shape as well as quality. Although latest average figures from the Uruguayan authorities show that only 40 per cent of the surface area under apple production is irrigated, this figure is some two years old and also takes into account smaller growers. Among the larger production companies the figure is estimated this year to be well in excess of 70 per cent of their acreage under production.
Infrastructure within the sector has also been improving with the largest producers all having storage facilities. There are also now between eight and 10 packhouses used by the deciduous fruit industry.
In all it would be hard to disagree with the Uruguayan farm authorities: “The sector can count on a capable human resource and adequate technology for the development of its production. The technology applied to crops, among which it is important to highlight the identification of which varieties to use, as well as the density and irrigation of those crops, should all lead to the cultivation of exportable products.”
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