According to Sierra Exportadora’s CEO, Alfonso Velasquez Tuesta, Peruvian blueberry exports amounted to U.S. $13,087,362 in 2013, 2.71% more than in in 2012.
Velasquez Tuesta stated during the inauguration of the International Symposium on Peruvian Super Fruits, Fruticia 2014, that the main exporters of this product were Camposol and Talsa, which together accounted for over 95% of total shipments.
He also said that the main markets had been the United States with 39%, Hong Kong with 22%, the Netherlands with 20%, UK, 10%, Belgium, 4%, Spain, 3%, Costa Rica, 1%, and others, 1%.
According to him, many of the blueberry shipments in 2013 had been carried out after the campaigns in Chile and New Zealand had ended but before the campaigns of the United States and Spain started; i.e. between weeks 10 and 15 (from March 4 to April 14).
However, he stressed, the most important trading window had been between weeks 35 and 47 (from August 26 to November 24), which coincided with the end of the campaign in the United States, Germany and Poland and took place before the beginning of the campaign in Chile, Argentina and Australia.
The CEO said that Peru had had 550 hectares of blueberries in 2013. According to plans, this year the country’s blueberry surface would reach the 900 hectares, in 2015 it would amount to 1,500, by the end of 2016 there would be 2,500 hectares, and between 2018 and 2020 the country would have 4,000 hectares.
In this regard, he said that 325 hectares of the 550 that the country had in 2013 had been in the hands of large companies with plantations in La Libertad, Ancash and Lima. Meanwhile, medium businesses planted 125 hectares, distributed in Cajamarca, Ica and Arequipa. Small farmers settled in Lambayeque, Huanuco, Cerro de Pasco and Junin, worked a total of 100 hectares of blueberries, he said.
