Trackberry

Season calendar

Plum export season by country

Chile peaks December to March, South Africa November to February — both into the Northern Hemisphere winter stone fruit gap.

Peak supply November–March from Chile and South Africa. No origin on this page ships them in May–September.

Plum export calendar: which origin ships in which month.
Origin January February March April May June July August September October November December
Chile January: Peak February: Peak March: Peak April: Shoulder May: Not shipping June: Not shipping July: Not shipping August: Not shipping September: Not shipping October: Not shipping November: Shoulder December: Peak
South Africa January: Peak February: Peak March: Shoulder April: Not shipping May: Not shipping June: Not shipping July: Not shipping August: Not shipping September: Not shipping October: Shoulder November: Peak December: Peak
Peak — shipping in volume Shoulder — opening or closing Export windows out of the origin, not arrival weeks. Add the lane's transit.

Last reviewed August 2026. Windows are editorial ranges for a normal year, not a published schedule, and they are export weeks out of the origin rather than arrival weeks in your market.

Plums are a Southern Hemisphere summer crop sold into the Northern Hemisphere winter, which puts Chile and South Africa on almost the same window. Chile is the larger of the two by a wide margin and ships a few weeks behind it. They arrive when European and North American stone fruit is months away, and they compete mostly with each other.

Plums are picked firm and ripen at destination, which makes them more forgiving in transit than a berry and less forgiving than an apple. The variable that decides how a container lands is the ripeness it was picked at, not the days it spent at sea. Late varieties stretch both windows past the harvest, because they ship from cold store rather than from the tree.

Chile

December–March peak · April, November shoulder Varieties: Angeleno, Larry Ann, Santa Rosa, Fortune Load ports: Valparaíso, San Antonio, and Coronel

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.

Chile plum: window and arrival weeks · Everything Chile ships · Chile → Philadelphia, Chile → Rotterdam, Chile → United Kingdom

South Africa

November–February peak · March, October shoulder Varieties: Angeleno, Fortune, Songold Load ports: Cape Town, Durban, and Gqeberha

Roughly October to March out of the Western Cape, ahead of and overlapping the Chilean window.

South Africa plum: window and arrival weeks · Everything South Africa ships · South Africa → United Kingdom

FAQ

When are plums in season?
Plums are at peak November–March, shipping from Chile and South Africa. They are still available in April and October, on the shoulder of those windows rather than in volume. No origin on this calendar ships them in May–September.
Which countries export plums?
Chile and South Africa. These are export weeks out of the origin, not arrival weeks in your market — add the lane's transit on top.
When is the Chile plum season?
Chile ships plums December–March, with April and November at the shoulders.

Importing plum? Trackberry tracks those containers and reads the paperwork that arrives with them, in one place. See how it works for produce importers, or book a 20-minute chat.

The same origins also ship

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