Plum export season by country (2026)

Plum export season by country

When Chile and South Africa ship plums, month by month, through the Northern Hemisphere's own stone fruit gap.

Peak supply November–March from Chile and South Africa. No origin on this page is at peak in April–October.

Plum export calendar: which origin ships in which month.
Origin	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
Chile December–March peak · April, November shoulder	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 November–February peak · March, October shoulder	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.

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.

Everything Chile ships, month by month · 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.

Plums are picked firm and ripen at destination, so the variable that decides how a container lands is the ripeness it left at rather than the days it spent at sea. South Africa’s shorter voyage gives the buyer more room to get that wrong.

Everything South Africa ships, month by month · South Africa → United Kingdom

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