The cultivation of blueberries would generate about 100 jobs at the peak of the July 2020 / March 2021 campaign.

This was indicated by the Association of Blueberry Producers of Peru (ProArandanos), who added that 52% of the jobs would be held by women.

Peruvian exports of blueberries have been very dynamic in recent years. In 2015, dispatches totaled US $ 97 million, in 2019 they totaled US $ 816 million and it is expected that in 2020 they will reach US $ 1 billion.

The main destination markets are the United States, the Netherlands and China, with a participation of 56%, 22% and 8.6%, respectively.

The Peruvian Foreign Trade Society (ComexPerú) indicated that the blueberry success story in our country has been built on competitiveness, productivity and innovation.

"This result is due to public-private work to open markets, important investments, innovation to expand production windows, an agrarian regime that promotes the sector that has become a catalyst for economic and social development in rural areas of the country", Held.

Safeguarding in the United States
However, the international trade union indicated that the Peruvian blueberry industry faces a great risk, which is protectionism in our main destination market, since the United States has requested the initiation of a safeguard investigation, which could impose access barriers , such as increased tariffs, or quantitative restrictions, such as quotas, which would affect a formal job opportunity for thousands of Peruvians.

ComexPerú indicated that there is no technical argument to determine that Peruvian blueberries affect US production; on the contrary, it generates great benefits for both the industry and the consumer.

“In the United States there is a high and growing demand that is not covered by national production. In addition, there is a complementarity in seasonality between the production of the northern country (it begins in April, with peaks in June and July, and then decreases until disappearing in December) and the export of Peru has its peak during September-January, which it allows the consumer to have fresh blueberries all year round ”, he explained.

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. The National Agrarian Health Service (Senasa) pointed out that the cultivated area of ​​blueberries in our country went from 2.316 hectares in 2016 to 10.964 hectares in 2019.