Agustín Marín Cobo, Onizzo’s Bussiness Manager gives us his perspective of what has been the 2024 exporting period: it went “from less to more” in relation to prunes; though it was not the same with plums. He also has great hopes for 2025.
2024 has been a positive season for Onizzo which provides growth and learning.
Now a days, they are processing and exporting more than 3,000 tons of prunes; the demand is constant and the market is absorbing what the company has offered. In addition, there is a strengthening of their position as exporters of nuts and garlic and an increase in new lines like cherries and plums.
Specifically, regarding prunes, this season has gone from less to more; the clients started the season with important stocks but they always saw that the product was being sold and that there was a healthy movement which made them to keep buying with a good balance between offer and demand. “To summarize, rising prices and good shipping speed”, said Agustín Marín Cobo, Onizzo’s Bussiness Manager, company associated to Chileprunes.
During the last months, the company has had encounters with several prune recipients in China and Chile to evaluate how to improve the product sent searching for a good formula for both parts. The purpose is not only to increment the volumes sent to that country but also to achieve a homogenous and standard product that fulfills the needs of the Chinese customers while safeguarding the interests of our producers, he adds.
Now, Onizzo is in a very comfortable position with at least 95% of its production sold and or committed and prices that assure a good closure of the season.
And if we have to look into the future, the 2024-2025 season looks equally hopeful: regarding production until today the conditions have been optimal with a great job on the side of the producers while from the commercial aspect the demand is constant and even more, if the producers in the northern hemisphere are having lower than normal productions.
In relation to markets China stands out greatly as a destination for our prunes while Poland is a market that never ceases to surprise us for its incredible resilience. This country, for the Chilean market, has been for several years in the top 3 destination for prunes.
Regarding the other global power of the Asian market, India, Agustín Marín visualizes it as a promising future. “We have already entered India, market that is still getting to know the product, with the first prune shipments”. There is still a lot to learn. The path will be, I think, similar to the nuts; there will be bitter moments for many actors, but, in the long term, it is a market with an enormous potential. Now from Chileprunes, we are making big marketing efforts to develop the market and to teach the Indian consumers about this incredible product: the Chilean prunes.
China and plums
But it has to be said, that regarding plums, the results for Onizzo were not what was expected. In February this year, there was a lot of interest for this product with high expectations regarding what it represented for the Chinese market. All in all, at the end, the results were mixed; the beginning was good but the end of the season less than encouraging. This can be summarized with two big reasons:
“Big volumes and poor quality. If the conditions of the fruit are not the best, with low and uneven brix grades and variable harvesting times it is better to think twice before engaging in a market that is very demanding with quality”.
A year ago, Onizzo, in these pages, had pointed out that they wanted to reach 600 to 700 thousand kilos of fresh product -that is to say about 230 thousand kilos of dehydrated product- to export to China. “For sure, we achieved our goal and we are already in the world of the fresh product. A great effort was made and we sent a program or 600 thousand kilos of plums. Considering it was our first season it was a tough lesson because the market was under a lot of pressure. We could understand the way the Chinese receivers operate and what kind of product they want”, he adds.
Onizzo ships prunes, nuts, garlic, cherries and plums to more than 35 countries and in the case of prunes for the 2024-2025 season it plans to export 3,500 metric tons (TM) from more or less 30 suppliers in 400 hectares in the Metropolitan Region and the VI Region in central Chile. To this date, 95% of our sale is made for Onizzo and they expect a 100% by November.
