José Antonio Soffia, assistant sales manager at Superfruit says that there has been observed an upward trend during the second half of the year due to low stocks but he says he is not sure this will continue during 2025.
It was 1986 when Agrosuper decided to venture in the fruit industry and create Superfruit, a company devoted to the production, processing and exportation of high-quality fruit; this company has been able to satisfy the needs of about 70 markets throughout the world during several years.
Superfruit now a days has 1,000 hectares of plums, 560 of nuts and 380 hectares of fresh fruit such as peaches, nectarines and the “novelty” cherries, among others and 500 hectares of wine grapes; the orchards are in the areas of Rancagua, Lolol, Peralillo and Melipilla.
The importance the prune has for this company is reflected in the hectares planted. This data has this company among the three main prune exporters during the last years.
“During 2024 we handled from 9,300 to 9,500 tons of raw material with a final product of about 8,300 tons. This volume is within the target range of 9,000 to 10,000 tons to optimize the use of our plant”, says José Antonio Soffia, assistant sales manager at Superfruit.
The goals are achieved and, for the summer, until mid-February, there are only a few containers to be sold.
Regarding prices, he adds, even though the year started with figures going down, “we noted a recovery in the middle of the year due to low availability of fruit in the market. This raised the prices, but we are not sure if this tendency will continue during 2025”.
José Antonio Soffia, assistant sales manager at Superfruit says that there has been observed an upward trend during the second half of 2024 due to low stocks and a slight decrease in production and exports in what was expected in California and France.
During 2024, the prices in the industry decreased between 25% and 30% in relation to the previous year, a significant adjustment after years of historically high prices (2021-2022).
A little bit more diversified
Although for the Chilean prune industry China represented during 2024 around 25% of its shipments, “Superfruit is more diversified in its markets; the Asian giant represents more or less 20% of its exports. China is a very attractive market for fresh and dehydrated products with a gigantic space for growth, just as India”, adds José Antonio Soffia.
About 50 to 52% of Superfruit prunes go to Europe. About 30% goes to Asia where China buys mainly small calibers and fresh fruit.
The strategy of sending small calibers to China and bigger to Europe is a decision based in the profitability per market, maximizing the value of each product. “China buys the most commodity of the commodity which is fresh fruit in 25 kg bags, but at that price it is more profitable to sell that product in another market”.
Profitability is a key aspect in the analysis of the agricultural export industry specially in markets such as dehydrated fruits and nuts where margins can fluctuate a lot depending on factors such as production costs, international costs, supply and demand and market diversification.
In India is being made a big promotion of Chileprunes adds José Antonio Soffia highlighting part of the campaign with the presence of renown people that speak in Instagram about the benefits of the Chilean prune. One of them has more than 80,000 likes.
It is expected the Chilean production in 2025 to be 3-5% bigger than 2024 depending on factors such as the condition of the orchards.
In the inner image, José Antonio Soffia with Pablo Morandé the managing director.
