b'16American Journal of Transportation ajot.comLatin American exports of fruits prove resilient Latin Americas exports of fruits have been tested by two seasons under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic.By Matt Miller, AJOTDuring Lunar New Year,spoilageintheaftermathof Chinese families love to givethe port shutdown and thoseLAT I NA M ER IC A N andreceivegiftsofcherriesthatdidmakeit, freshcherries.Thatsbeendelayedtomarket,fetched ahugebonanzaforChile.lessmoney,especiallysinceTRADE BI-ANNUALDemandhasprovedsohighthere was a lockdown at the that more than 90% of Chil- time.IQonsultingestimated eancherriesproducedareChile could have lost as much nowexportedtoChina,anas $200 million due to this ini-almost $2 billion market thattial fallout of the pandemic.hasmultipliedseveralfoldProbably less severe, but still over the past decade. The firstnoteworthy, was the impact of batcheseachyearcommandthe rumors of tainted cherries.such premium prices that theyThispastseason,which are airfreighted from Santiagoextended from October through toShanghaiandGuangzhouMarch, total cherry production toinsureearliestdeliveryof(RESILIENTcontinued the prized produce. on page 17)That trade has been sorely tested by two seasons of being under a pandemic cloud. First, inlateJanuary2020,China abruptlyshutdownitsportsWE KNOWjustasthelastboatloadsof cherrieswerearriving.This caused a two-week chokehold ondeliveryandsubsequent fallinpricesoncethecher-ries reached land. In addition,PEOPLEthe Chinese ports closure trig-gered a cascading shortage of reefercontainersthroughout LatinAmerica,whichtook weeks to recover.Then, in late January this year, a false rumor spread on Chinesesocialmediathat aboxofimportedcherries inJiangsuprovince,near Shanghai,wascontaminated withtracesofCovid-19 through packaging. This trig-gered an immediate, although brief, plunge in the wholesale and retail price of cherries in China. (One Shanghai-based Chileanmarketingexecu-tivecalleditabucketof cold water, according to the media site Dilogo Chino.) Chileanproducersand officials immediately launched a million-dollar marketing and PR blitz, and were able to suc-cessfullycountertherumors, which generated more than 400 million page views and 25,000 articles, according to Gonzalo Salinas,apartnerandmarket analyst at iQonsulting, a San-tiago-basedconsultancythat specializes in agriculture. busi- Mexicomadeeasy.The Chilean cherry nessdidntescapewholly unscathed.Therewassome 1000 Foust Rd., Brownsville, TX 78521(956) 831-45921-800-378-5395portofbrownsville.comGonzalo Salinas, iQonsulting'