Chilean cherries are sold at low prices.
Chilean cherries were previously regarded as premium fruits in Vietnam, and their prices ranged from VND200,000 to VND500,000 per kilo, depending on the variety and season.
Before the 2025 Lunar Tet New Year holiday, JD cherries imported from Chile entered the Vietnamese market at steep prices, fluctuating between VND 200,000 and VND400,000 per kilo, depending on size.
However, the price of these luxury fruits has dropped sharply after the holiday. Over the past two weeks, Chilean cherries have been widely advertised on online marketplaces at rock-bottom prices - only VND90,000 to VND100,000 per kilo for bulk purchases of five-kilo boxes. Even for smaller retail purchases, prices have fallen to just VND120,000-130,000 per kilo.
Speaking with the VietNamNet Newspaper, Phung Thi Tam, a fruit wholesaler on Le Trong Tan Street in Hanoi, confirmed that the abundant supply had driven prices down.
“Chilean cherry prices have dropped by about 50 percent compared to the period before the Tet holiday,” she noted. JD cherries, the most popular variety in Vietnam, are now sold at just VND520,000 per five-kilo box, while the premium 4JD size is priced at only VND 169,000 per kilo.
“Chile is in peak harvest season, leading to a significant supply increase. Additionally, while cherries were previously transported by air - incurring high shipping costs - they are now shipped by sea, reducing transportation expenses considerably,” Tam explained.
According to Cherry Times, Chile’s cherry harvest typically lasts from October to January, with peak export volumes between November and February. This means the current period is Chile’s prime cherry export season.
Notably, thanks to a substantial expansion in cherry orchards - reaching 70,500 hectares in 2024 - Chile expects to export nearly 658,000 tonnes of cherries during the 2024-2025 season, a 55 percent increase from the previous season.
Since 2021, Vietnam has been a key target market for Chilean cherry exporters. Before this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, a major supermarket chain in Vietnam imported 100 tonnes of Chilean cherries to meet holiday demand and sold 20 tonnes on the first day at prices below VND200,000 per kilo.
