Chilean cherry production fell significantly in MY2012/2013 when compared to the previous year as a result adverse weather conditions. Weather has been bad during last winter, mainly because of a lack of cold days coupled with hail and rain during the blossom period. Production and exports of peaches and nectarines fell as planted area continued to decrease due to low economic returns and adverse weather conditions that affected all stone fruit production. A revaluation of the Chilean peso against the dollar and increasing production costs encourages farmers to uproot low producing orchards. This is not the case for cherries producers who still obtain good economic returns in spite of the deterioration of the exchange rate; which encourages farmers to increase plantings. During the last few years planted areas to cherries have increased significantly. For cherries a further expansion of production can be expected as additional planted area is coming into production and a still large area is in the incremental stage of
production.
