The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released its Annual Report on Chilean stone Fruit, showing that abundant winter rains during the 2023/24 season increased reservoir storage in the O 'Higgins and Maule regions, as well as increased acreage and stable yields. The total production of Chilean peaches and nectarines for the 2023/24 season is expected to reach 162,500 tons, a slight increase of 1.6% over the 2022/23 season.

Chilean peaches and nectarines are expected to be planted on 8,500 hectares this season, a slight increase of 0.3% over last season. As fresh peaches are less profitable compared to other stone fruits and producers switch to more profitable crops such as nectarines or cherries, peach acreage continues to decline while nectarine acreage continues to grow. Peaches were planted on 1,851 hectares in 2022/23, down 0.5% from the previous season, while nectarines were planted on 6,624 hectares in the same period, up 2.2% from 2021/22. Nectarines in Chile are grown mainly in the central region, especially in the O 'Higgins and Metropolitana regions. In the past three seasons, the planting area in these two regions has increased by 26.6% and 10.5% respectively.

Chilean fresh peach and nectarine exports for the 2022/23 season amounted to US $136 million, with exports totaling 103,806 tons, a decrease of 6.9%. Due to a slight increase in nectarine production, exports for the 2023/24 season are expected to increase by 2.3% to 106,400 tonnes.

The top five export destinations for Chile's fresh peaches and nectarines are China, the United States, Mexico, Brazil and the Netherlands, and the USDA report shows that China has been its largest overseas market for two consecutive years. Chilean nectarines exported to China in the quarter of 2021/22 reached 37,307 tons, an increase of 42.2% year-on-year, and exports to China in the quarter of 2022/23 were 34,658 tons, although down 7.1% from the quarter of 2021/22, but still higher than the United States, the largest export market for Chilean nectarines.

There are many varieties of Chilean nectarines, and the export season is concentrated from December to March. Earlier, the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX) said that the overall decline in nectarine exports in the 2022/23 season was mainly due to poor logistics in the previous season, which forced a large proportion of nectarines to remain in the domestic market. In addition, the share of old varieties and late varieties of yellow meat exported from nectarine is declining, and the export volume of new varieties with early maturity is increasing.

According to Chilean media Simfruirt previously reported that ASOEX and the Chilean Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) recently visited the Chinese General Administration of Customs and other relevant departments, on the further access of Chilean stone fruit and logistics improvement and other matters for consultation, the two sides have reached a consensus on export quarantine electronic certification, peach and apricot access varieties to expand. Miguel Canala-Eche verria, General manager of ASOEX, believes that the full opening of the Chinese market to Chilean peaches and apricots is only a few steps away and is expected to be achieved in July next year.

According to Chinese customs statistics, from November 2022 to May 2023, China imported 33,380 tons of fresh peaches (nectarines) from Chile, worth about 487 million yuan.