Peruvian blueberry production is at its peak and will count with 20.000 hectares planted in the next 3 years.

Today, Peru has 14.000 hectares of blueberries and in the next 3 years it will reach 20.000 hectares, according to the general manager of Terra Business, Federico Beltrán Molina.

He pointed out that blueberry growers are developing and investing a lot in technology, and as a result 10 genetic programs appeared. In that sense, more than 70 % of the Peruvian supply has a modern genetic component.

Before, in 2012-2014, Peruvian fruit was considered to be acidic, which had a bad impact on its commercialization. However, now that stereotype disappears, because Peru has achieved a differentiation by quality through the genetic component.

Peru's blueberry fields are among the best in the world (followed by Mexico, South Africa, and Morocco). There are fields from Moquegua to Piura. In addition, there are powerful projects in the Sierra de Áncash (Huaraz) and Cajamarca. Today, of the 14.000 hectares of blueberries planted, 5.000 correspond to the Ventura variety, 5.000 to Biloxi, 2.000 hectares are of protected varieties, and another 2.000 are from those 10 genetic programs.

Chavimochic has 8.000 hectares of blueberries and in Olmos there are 3.500, and the following year they will reach 5.000.

Mr. Beltrán said that the price of Peruvian blueberries in the international market is 6 dollars per kilo, and that of Chile is 4 dollars. Prices will stay moderate due to the stable demand.

He also stressed that they will seek to have a FOB cost of less than 3.5 dollars per kilo, and there is a need to work on the genetic component, pruning mechanization, better prototypes of mechanical harvesters, among others.

source: agraria.pe

photo: freshfruitportal.com