For the first time in its more than 25-year history with the fruit, Madera, CA-based Stellar Distributing Inc. is putting some of its Chilean kiwifruit in controlled atmosphere storage in California to extend its marketing season.

Sales Manager Kurt Cappelluti said a severe frost in Chile during the early part of the year cut that crop's volume in half and many of his suppliers are already running out of fruit.

From a typical industry volume of about 21 million cartons shipped to the United States, he said there will only be a total of about 10 million cartons when all is said and done this year. While kiwifruit from that South American country typically is in the market until California starts in late summer or early fall, the Stellar executive said that will not be the case this year.

Consequently, the firm, which has about 200,000 cases headed to California from Chile or already in the company's cold-storage facility, is going to put at least 125,000 cartons in controlled atmosphere over the next several weeks.

Cappelluti said it is certainly a risk since he has not done it before, but he said the health of the fruit will be monitored closely and kiwifruit does well in CA.

He believes the risk is worth the reward as the short situation has created a strong market for the little fuzzy fruit.

In fact, he said, "I've been selling kiwi since 1986 and I've never seen a better market. There is lot of action and movement and the market is still going higher."

On Thursday, May 8, he said the standard nine-kilo carton had an f.o.b. price of $23 to $26 and was moving to $25-$27. As an historical reference, he said a year ago he was selling Chilean kiwifruit for $7-$9 per carton.

According to Cappelluti, the first shipments from Chile hit the United States in late March with a price in the high teens and it has been steadily rising ever since.

He added that kiwifruit from New Zealand should come into the U.S. marketplace later this month and may command a price north in the $30-$32 per-carton range. He said the green crop from New Zealand available for U.S. export has declined in recent years as more growers have switched to the gold variety, which means the demand-exceeds-supply situation for that category could continue throughout the summer.

Relief might not come until California begins shipping. While that is typically around Oct. 1, Cappelluti said the state's warm winter has seemingly pushed everything up a couple of weeks from the San Joaquin Valley and desert regions, including figs, grapes and summer fruits.

If that continues, Cappelluti said there could be some California kiwifruit on the market in mid-September.