Cherry export season by country

Cherries are the most delay-sensitive cargo that moves by sea in volume, and the calendar runs in two halves that never meet. Chile is the Southern Hemisphere origin that matters, by an enormous margin, with Argentine Patagonia shipping a small, high-value crop on almost the same November-to-January window. Turkey — the largest cherry exporter in the world — and the American Northwest carry June and July on the other side of the year.

The halves are priced on different things. The Southern Hemisphere window is set by a single date, Chinese New Year, and fruit arriving after it is worth a fraction of fruit arriving before it; the Northern one has no equivalent deadline and is priced on being first into a market that has had none since January. What both share is that a rolled booking is not a scheduling problem. Vessels are chartered for these weeks, sailings are direct because a transshipment costs days nobody has, and a container that misses is the difference between the price the season was budgeted at and the price the leftovers fetch.