BerryBroad

Christopher Columbus put South America on the fruit export map in the 1400’s with the introduction of pineapples to Spain, while in the 19^th century the continent’s first avocadoes were introduced in the U.S. Fast forward to 2011 and South America continues to play an important role in supplying the world, particularly the U.S., with fruits and vegetables.

To put this into perspective, in just the first five months of this year Chile alone shipped 1,718,421 metric tons (MT) of fresh fruit, while even the export value of a commodity like nuts is set to rise to US$300 million in the coming years. While the spectrum of Chile’s horticultural exports is broad, a good example is that U.S. consumers benefit from around 119,000MT of Chilean table grapes annually.

This is the first of a monthly series in which the BerryBroad will be writing for Fresh Fruit Portal as Contributing Produce Correspondent.  To read the rest of this article, please click here.