Beyond a quiet January, demand is very strong compared to last year.
Horacio Ozer Ami and Esther van der Hoorn represent the European sales office of the Chilean production company of blueberries Carsol Fruit in the Netherlands. This has gone well so far, according to Esther. “Until December there has been good demand. January traditionally starts off quieter, but at the moment the demand is very strong compared to last year. There have been a lot of supermarket deals, and there are also a lot of deals planned for February – when a reasonable amount of volume is expected – so the market has a good balance.”
At the moment the Chilean blueberries are dominating the market. “Quite a small volume has carefully started from Peru and Morocco. They are a little earlier than last year,” says Esther. According to the sales manager Europe is an important market for the Chilean blueberries. “Of the total volume most still goes to the United States. You can see the volume to Europe increasing slightly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these export ratios change a little due to the low dollar exchange rate and less is sent to Europe.”
The planting of blueberries in Chile is still growing, but not to the same extent as a few years ago. But the planting in recent years is still causing an increase in volume,” says Esther. She indicated that the quality of the Chilean blueberries is fine this season. “The appearance and the taste of the blueberries is good, but during the growing season it rained a lot, which can cause problems for some varieties. Our advantage is that we sell 100% of our own production. This makes for more continuity in the quality than when they are bought from multiple farms.”
“Because we sell our own production, we know what supply to expect per variety and can estimate the quality well. This means that we can give our customers detailed information and can plan better,” says Esther. “The lines are also short and we make sure the programmes are tight. We package in Chile and the Netherlands, exactly how the customer wants. We are mainly present in Scandinavia, Germany and the United Kingdom, but sell all over Europe and people are finding it a lot easier to find us.”