Exactly 10 years ago, in November 2011, with an investment of 193 thousand soles, Sierra Exportadora launched “Peru Berries”, an internationalization program for the production of berries, after adapting the berries to the climate and soil reality. Peruvian. It was a process of technification and implementation of crops whose main objective was the introduction of blueberries in the Peruvian agro-export industry.

A successful plan

At the ceremony a decade ago, Alfonso Velásquez Tuesta, then president of Sierra Exportadora, predicted:

"In this way, Peru will enter this competitive agro-export market just in the annual period in which the northern hemisphere does not produce these crops, with this it is expected to take advantage of that window of opportunity", and he was not wrong, because Peru not only took advantage of in a very good way the aforementioned commercial window, but currently its production and supply has spread throughout the annual blueberry calendar in world markets.

2.200 masl

Previously, an adaptation program was started on an experimental basis in the lands of the Andean peasant community of Pichupampa, located in the Leoncio Prado district, in the Huaura Province, Lima Region, at about 2.200 meters above sea level. There the community members successfully developed the cultivar plantation with the support of Sierra Exportadora.

"Sierra Exportadora seeks as an objective to achieve an important participation in the world blueberry market in the coming years, for which it will install more demonstration plots in different parts of the Peruvian highlands, so that businessmen, regional and local authorities, and the associations of producers, are convinced of the potential of the blueberry and participate in its intensive use”, assured Alfonso Velásquez at the time.

Previous actors

Federico Beltrán, former leader of Sierra Exportadora, recalls that it was in 2007 that the program of new products was created to promote exportable products, within fruit trees, and the objective was to know the initiatives in the cultivation of berries that were being developed in back then in Peru, to empower them and create synergy between them. For this he met with the leaders of the southern hemisphere, such as VitalBerry and Hortifrut.

“In this 2007 mapping, several companies and entrepreneurs with ongoing projects were found. There was the Intipa Foods company, in Caraz, also Valle and Pampa, a Lozada family in Arequipa, Camposol was already executing projects, and there were other entrepreneurs also in Cañete ”, recalls Beltrán.

“2007 was when this international prospecting began to obtain investments and the search for the best local experiences. This was the initial antecedent to the Peru berries program in 2011, and from there the exponential whirlpool of blueberries began in Peru, but it all started much earlier ”, explains Beltrán.

Celebration

They are 10 virtuous years for the Peruvian blueberry industry and there are enough reasons to celebrate, it is for this reason that the "World Blueberry Tour" will begin in Peru in March 2022 and will spread throughout the world, stopping in the main producing and exporting countries. of the "fruit of the century", as some call it.

The World Blueberry Tour will begin on March 10, 2022 at The Westin Lima Hotel & Convention Center, where the XIX International Blueberry Seminar will be held.

On the occasion, the main international companies related to the cultivation of blueberries will meet; prominent rapporteurs and specialists who will present on the latest knowledge on the crop; and Peruvian authorities, both public and private, related to the agro-export industry and the successful development of the Peruvian blueberry industry.

Get your ticket at: https://blueberriesconsulting.com/seminario/xix-seminario-peru-2022/