Peru is the main exporter of asparagus in the world. The highest percentage of asparagus exports are of fresh green asparagus, and to a lesser extent frozen asparagus and canned ones. The white asparagus is used in these last presentations.
Agraria.pe spoke with the Agribusiness specialist, Ernesto Gallo, who said that Peru must make an effort to develop the market for fresh white asparagus, especially in European countries.
"In Germany and the Netherlands, for example, they are accustomed to consuming asparagus only in one season (spring). That culture of consuming asparagus only in those months can be broken because the youth has other paradigms that can be exploited, that is a job for the guilds," he said.
He also said that other countries, such as Japan, which import a lot of the asparagus, albeit very little from Peru, also showed a great potential. "Promotional work should be done in those countries."
Sophisticated product
Ernesto Gallo also stressed that asparagus was a sophisticated product, relatively expensive, which made it hard to make it a mass consumption product, as not everyone had access to it.
"What Peru must do is look for other segments of the markets in other countries that consume more, there are still markets to exploit in the asparagus, although we are world leaders in the export of this vegetable there is still a lot of market to develop," he said.
The specialist in agribusiness said that if Peru wanted to increase asparagus consumption it would have to lower prices and, since it is an expensive product to produce, it might not be a profitable business.
Internal consumption
Regarding the domestic market, he said that increasing consumption in Peru was difficult because the middle class didn't have much capacity to pay or to compete with the prices in the international market, which is why almost all the production is exported.
"Peru has been dedicated to producing and exporting products of high intrinsic value that generate tremendous turnover in dollars but that are not easy to promote in the internal market," he stated.
