Chile fresh produce export calendar

Roughly November to January, with the commercially critical weeks being whichever ones land the fruit in China before Chinese New Year. Chile is effectively the only Southern Hemisphere origin shipping cherries at scale.

Everything about this window is compressed. Dedicated charter vessels sail direct to Asia, transshipment is avoided because it costs days the season does not have, and a rolled booking in December does not move a shipment — it changes what the shipment is worth.

Roughly December to April, the longest single programme Chile runs. It overlaps Peru’s window at the start and carries well past the end of the cherry season.

Grapes ship at the same moment cherries are pulling equipment and vessel space out of the market, so the December weeks are the ones where a grape booking is most likely to roll. Book earlier in peak than the window on its own would suggest.

Roughly November to February, picking up where Peru’s window tails off. For a European buyer the two origins together mean blueberries land almost every week from September through to the Northern Hemisphere’s own crop.

Chilean blueberries compete for reefer equipment with cherries and grapes in exactly the same weeks. That is the constraint on this programme, more than the harvest is.

Roughly November to April, with the volume from December to March. Chile is the largest plum exporter in the world, and the window sits a few weeks behind South Africa’s — the two origins together cover the whole Northern Hemisphere winter, and they compete with each other rather than with anything local.

Late varieties are what stretch the window into April: Angeleno stores and ships from cold long after the tree has finished. As with every stored programme, the sailing date is the seller’s decision rather than the harvest’s, so ask when they intend to ship.

Roughly November to March, on almost the same window as the plums and usually in the same booking. This is the other half of what a Chilean lane page means by “stone fruit”, and it sits directly opposite Spain’s summer programme on the calendar.

Nectarines and peaches are the least tolerant thing Chile ships in volume — softer than a plum, picked at a ripeness chosen for the voyage, and unforgiving of a setpoint that drifted. On a four-week lane the fruit’s condition on arrival was decided by what the reefer actually did, not by what the schedule said.

Roughly February to July, shipping from storage well past the harvest itself. Apples are what keeps Chilean volume moving after the summer fruit has finished and the ports have calmed down.

A stored apple programme is the most flexible thing on this page: the seller decides when the container sails. That flexibility is also why apple containers are the ones nobody watches — and demurrage does not care that the cargo was not in a hurry.

Roughly February to June, running with the apple programme and frequently in the same booking.

Pears are less tolerant than apples of temperature drift in transit, and they are ripened at destination on the importer’s schedule. What a pear container’s reefer actually did on the voyage is worth more than what the schedule said it would do.

Roughly April to July, the last major thing to leave Chile in a normal year. Harvest runs into the Southern Hemisphere autumn and shipping continues from storage past it.

Because kiwis store, the window is a commercial decision rather than a harvest one. Ask when the seller intends to ship rather than when the fruit was picked.

Roughly September to January, the Southern Hemisphere’s answer to the Peruvian window five months earlier. Chilean volume is smaller than Peru’s and a significant share stays in the Americas.

For a European buyer this is the shoulder of the avocado year rather than its centre — useful when Mexico is expensive and Peru has finished, and rarely the cheapest option on its own.

Roughly June to September, overlapping Peru’s window almost exactly. Between the two origins, Southern Hemisphere easy-peelers cover the whole Northern Hemisphere summer.

Chile’s citrus goes disproportionately to the United States, so European availability in any given year depends on where the exporters found the better price rather than on the harvest.