Rapidly spreading port strikes in export-dependent Chile are taking a growing toll on copper, fruit and wood pulp shipments in the world's leading red metal producer, mining and export sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Angamos port in Mejillones launched a strike about three weeks ago to seek a 30-minute lunch break, and other ports have since joined the work stoppage in solidarity. "This strike can end today or it can last 10 more days," Angamos union leader Enrique Solar told Reuters.

Chile is losing more than $200 million a day due to the conflict, according to the country's business chamber.

One shift of workers at the Valparaiso port joined the strike movement on Wednesday, bringing operations there to "half steam," a port worker told Reuters. The ports of Iquique, Antofagasta, Huasco, Caldera, San Antonio and around six smaller ports in the southern Bio Bio region are already on strike, a union leader said.

The port of Arica in the copper-producing North could also join the strike, Iquique port union leader Cesar Luna told Reuters. Around eight boats are waiting in front of the Northern port of Iquique and six are bidding time in Mejillones, Luna said, adding some ships had been re-routed to Peru.

Experts say presidential elections in November have also contributed to an uptick in labor unrest.

WOOD PULP ALSO HIT

In addition to mining metal, Chile is also a big producer of wood pulp, fruits, wine and salmon.

Fruit growers in most of Chile's central-southern regions will temporarily halt harvesting as of Friday, as some 1,600 containers sit at the San Antonio port and producers' losses already total some $50 million, fruit trade group Fedefruta said.

Those losses could climb to $400 million if the strike continues through April, the group added.

Meanwhile, three of forestry and paper company CMPC's units have suspended exports, with 42,000 tonnes of wood pulp waiting to be put on ships, the company's general secretary Gonzalo Garcia said.

"We calculate that the effects of this strike will be felt two months after operations have restarted because the traffic jam at ports will be huge and there will be a long line to load ships," Garcia said.