After an eventful Chilean fruit season, importers are hoping for some stability as the deal winds down into the spring with apples and kiwifruit.

Early Chilean apple imports had been arriving in the Philadelphia area for two weeks when Ron Dandrea spoke to The Produce News March 19.

Mr. Dandrea, who is vice president of Dandrea Produce, based in Buena, NJ, said that his firm's Chilean apple volume this spring will be up about 20 percent from 2007, but buyers should expect "smaller sizing, at least on the front end of the deal."

For Dandrea the largest-volume apple variety will be Galas, with Granny Smiths, Braeburns and Fujis also on tap. Apple quality "is very nice," Mr. Dandrea said.

He was unsure when the apple deal will end because of a variety of production and marketing factors. "It's been an interesting year."

David Schiro, president of Jac. Vandenberg Inc. in Yonkers, NY, said March 20 that his firm will receive its first Chilean apples in late March or around April 1. Because there are plenty of domestic apples on the market "there is no great rush" to start the Chilean deal, he said, noting that "Chilean Royal Galas compete very favorably with anything domestic. They are outstanding."

Mr. Schiro said that the Chilean kiwifruit crop "is delayed like all else from Chile this year." Vandenberg will begin receiving its first kiwi of the season around April 1. The volume "will not be terribly heavy. The crop is not that large," he said. The weak U.S. dollar "is not making growers happy. But we will start and have a program that runs through mid-September."

Mr. Schiro said Chilean kiwifruit will, as happens every year, start with smaller sizes "and as the season progresses, the average increases. There is a very good market outlook for Chile kiwi. California kiwi supplies for the most part are light and running out fast - and there is not a range of sizes available - and there is a strong market for California."

"We hope to finish with a bang," Mr. Dandrea said. "That has yet to be determined. There is a lot of uncertainty this year that I never had to deal with in the past. The euro exchange rate is a factor and other markets are opening" for Chilean exporters.

Jerry Smirniotis, vice president for the East Coast and director of the stone fruit category for The Oppenheimer Group in Wilmington, DE, said Chilean kiwifruit is represented by "a good crop" with relatively small fruit sizes, peaking at 39. He said Chile will be competing against a New Zealand kiwi crop with big sizes.

Craig Uchizono, vice president, Southern Hemisphere, for Giumarra's West Coast division in Vernon, CA, said the Chilean kiwi deal will begin around April 15.

Mr. Smirniotis said March 20 that the stone fruit deal was "finishing up. It will end up overall short on plums," with a volume reduction of 25-30 percent from a year ago. He believes the reduced plum volume was a reflection of the crop simply being down, as opposed to Chilean plums having been exported to other markets.

Oppenheimer was receiving the season's last variety of nectarines -- a white-fleshed variety -- in late March. The white-fleshed fruit was expected to finish by mid-April.

In Oppenheimer's Wilmington office, Josh Leichter is the North American category director for grapes.

Mr. Leichter said March 20 that over one million boxes of grapes had been shipped to the United States the preceding weeks -- specifically, Week 10 and Week 11. A lot of that volume is earmarked for storage.

Mr. Leichter added, "In general you will see the volume on green grapes pick up slightly over the last two weeks of March. Overall, the volume is still down from last year. That will contribute to a strong finish for green grapes, slightingly above historic prices. We had rain in Chile March 8, which is affecting the volume shipped to the United States. This will cut down some of the volumes."

The Chileans were "just getting into the Crimson harvest" March 20, he said. "There will be good supplies on reds through the marketing order, which ends April 20. The quality remains very good. We work with a couple growers who specialize in late-storage green grapes. We will have a good window, as some of this fruit that comes in the post-rain period may not hold up as well as some other fruit."

The season's last Chilean peaches -- the Sweet September variety -- were to arrive the last week of March.

Of the 2007-08 Chilean stone fruit deal, Mr. Smirniotis said, "The market was strong. The industry had good quality and consumers this year supported that" with purchases. "This headway shows consumer confidence for the future. As an industry, all of us benefited from the quality product sent this year. Chile, like all other shipping areas in the world, has got to bring to market the kind of quality that will be rewarded." This season the Chilean deal brought "few adjustments and good consumer confidence and good movement at the retail side."

Mr. Leichter said the Chilean fruit season "began marked by record delays because of cold weather and record high prices. December and January were followed with very heavy volume, especially with red grapes, and slow retail movement because [retail] prices were set high. The market went down very far, very fast. Now it's settled into historical pricing but given the weak U.S. dollar, the growers' net returns are not at historical levels. They are being killed by the exchange rate. Prices in the U.S. market are not high enough to offset the exchange rate."

Mr. Dandrea said that overall, "Numbers are off this year. We have had growers say: 'The exchange rate of the euro is hurting us.' The growers have more markets in the deal than there ever have been. Russia has now become a player. Asia is still taking what [it takes] and has had an impact on volume coming to us. There have been some diversions. It has affected some of the volume we have been getting."

(For more on Chilean apples and kiwi, see the March 31 issue of The Produce News.)