Factores que influyen en el precio del kiwi chileno en los mercados de exportación: Un estudio de caso

The main suppliers of Kiwi to the international markets are New Zealand, Italy and Chile. Chile is the third major producer of this fruit crop, with over 8,000 hectares distributed from the V to the VIII region of the country. Total production is about 150 thousand tons, of which 80% are destined to the export markets; the main destinations of this fruit are Europe, North and Latin America. In 2007 exports amounted to 143 million dollars, 5.4% of the value of fruit exports of that year (US$MM 2,260.3). This investigation aims to determine the factors that infl uence the price of kiwi in the international markets. With this purpose 1,490 export bulletins obtained at the export company Subsole were analyzed. This is an important company, as it sold between 27 and 48% of all the Chilean kiwi exported in the period 2005 to 2007. A log-linear hedonic price model was fi tted to the data, employing Weighted Least Squares. The variables of the model were: size, fruit type, month of marketing, destination market and year of export. The following conclusions were drawn from the study: (a) the variable with the highest impact on price is the type of fruit, followed by marketing month, destination port and, in the last place, size; (b) ellipsoidal fruits are preferred to fl at fruits; (c) March is the most convenient marketing month, as the price diminishes in the following months; (d) the Far and Middle East countries are the most interesting markets, followed by Latin America and, in the last places, Europe and the United States; (e) size has a very mild infl uence on price, being punished the price of small sizes and vice versa.