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
