U.S. & CHILE - We may be out of the clementine season now, but we’re in the heart of the mandarin, navel, and lemon season. The citrus spree continues as we dive in with Karen Brux, Managing Director with Fruits from Chile.

“North America is the primary market for Chilean Citrus,” Karen starts. “Nearly 100 percent of Chile’s clementines, mandarins, and navels are sent to North America. Lemons are also an important item for Chile, and while North America is its largest market, East Asia—primarily Japan—and Europe also take considerable volumes of lemons.”

Total volume across all citrus is expected to be down by eight percent this year, from 358,452 tons in 2018 to 329,000 tons in 2019 (see chart below). Despite the dip, the category has seen phenomenal growth over the past several years, especially in mandarins, the highest volume shipped to North America from Chile.

The “easy peeler” category of clementines and mandarins saw the highest growth—not to my surprise; they’re pretty addicting and easy to snack on. Marketing strategies in North America also contributed to those numbers, along with the strong, steady supply from Chile for the summer and fall demand. Riding off of that success, the navel and mandarin promotions are coming in hot—or cool—with developments such as a social media contest, kids cooking classes, digital coupon, in-store demos, or even a combination of all four.

“We have a large range of promotion materials, but we offer custom design items for retailers,” Karen continued. “There are a number of Southern Hemisphere countries exporting citrus to North America, but Chile not only has consistently high-quality fruit, we also have strong marketing to help retailers drive sales. This is key.”

Karen then goes on to state that the strong social media campaign has more than 350,000 Facebook fans and almost 20,000 on Instagram. Fruits from Chile easily (and actively) engages consumers with great usage videos, nutrition tips, beautiful recipes, and lots of promotions/giveaways. The high percentage of lemons being sold through foodservice channels has also led Fruits from Chile to run digital ad campaigns with a few key foodservice publications. With such high popularity, Fruits from Chile also exhibits at a number of foodservice events.

To hear more about these Chilean varieties, watch the video above featuring Karen herself. For the latest in all citrus news, keep reading ANUK.

Fruits from Chile