The latest Chile numbers from the US agricultural service came out at the end of August: a cherry crop of 727,000 tonnes and exports of 667,000, against 569,492 tonnes last season. That is a forecast, not a fact. The same report says logistics at the peak and what China can absorb hold the figure back, and that is the part that reaches my desk.
My reading, and only mine: a big crop is not a big problem in the orchard. It is a problem in the fortnight when every exporter wants the same sailings. Space is usually committed well before anyone has picked a cherry, against a number nobody has seen yet. Wrong in either direction, and somebody pays for empty slots or for fruit waiting in a packhouse with the cold air running.
The cheap fix I lean towards is a firm base of sea space early and the top slice left to the pick, accepting that the top slice costs more in the weeks it is needed. If I guess wrong it costs days, not pesos.
What would change my mind is a season where the late booker still got space at an ordinary price in the peak weeks. How are the rest of you splitting it?
From the claims side, what I would add is who carries the wrong guess. Empty slots, or space booked for fruit that is late, are your cost, not a cargo loss. Cherries that wait in the packhouse and spoil are usually delay, and delay is excluded even when something insured caused it. Nobody insures the bad fortnight.
That favours your firm base. Whatever sits in the top slice, keep the paper that shows when the fruit was ready and when it was refused space.
not fruit for me, housewares, but same fight every peak season. firm base early is right. the top slice is where the surprise surcharges live, so get what the late booking costs in writing before you need it.
Not my coast, only the road end of it. The top slice needs a truck and a gate slot too, and in the peak fortnight the gate queue is the same for everyone. Booked space does not help a driver sat in line.
Camila, I would push on "days, not pesos". With cherries the days are the pesos. Every day the fruit sits in a packhouse waiting for a top slice sailing comes off its life at the far end, and soft fruit on arrival is what drags the price, as some early varieties showed last season. Down here a lost day on chilled fruit is the dearest line on the invoice, and it never appears on it.
