Carlos Gereda Cornejo, executive president of Inka's Berries spoke with Blue Magazine for its next 2021 edition that will be distributed from May. It is a long interview that covered the different topics related to the industry. We share a preview of her in this note.

About us

Inka's Berries company has placed more than 20 million seedlings on the market in the last decade and has a production capacity of 5 million per year, encompassing more than 35 advanced selections. Through the program breeding, Inka's Berries Genetically Directs Advanced Blueberry Selections and Launches New Varieties premium of blueberries with its own patents and unique in the world.

- How do they get into this business?

- Yes, look, we formally started the company in 2009. Previously, in 2006 I brought some varieties of blueberries from Chile. We brought 14 of those that were planted in 2006 to validate their suitability for cultivation in Peru. It was discovered at that time that the main problem that existed was that the plants were very expensive, 4 or 5 dollars each plant at the time, and they were delivered in 2 years. In addition to that, no one in the world thought that we could produce blueberries, because the cold hours necessary for cultivation did not exist on the Peruvian coast, (there is no hour that is below 11 degrees), and a cold hour is an hour that is below 7,2 ° C, then there was not much conviction in the industry that Peru could be a player. What I decided in 2006 was to talk with Chilean friends and they were able to send us these 14 varieties, of which Biloxi, Duke, Sharpblue and Legacy stood out, which adapted better. With those we started the propagation, because the other varieties did not have much fruit, so they were discarded.

Alliance with the Academy

Regarding the improvement programs, he comments that in 2012 they agreed to an alliance with the University of Georgia, being exclusive representatives worldwide. "After 5 years we obtained the first result, the Salvador variety, which is our first variety," says Gereda and comments that the program has three generations:

“The advanced selections from Georgia that were validated in Peru, from which Salvador and Matías started, which are the two varieties of the first generation of Georgia, at this stage only royalties are paid for the plant. The second generation corresponds to plants born in Peru and validated for 5 years, at that stage a royalty is paid for the plant and for the fruit produced, and the third generation, which also derives from genetics that was born here in Peru, selected and validated by us, where royalty will be paid for the plant, the fruit produced and it must be handled in our commercial channels ”, he explains.

Good caliber and good flavor

- What are the qualities of Salvador or Matías?

- Salvador is a very interesting variety, high production and concentration, very firm, with good size and flavor, it comes at a time when Peruvian fruit is already very tired, the harvest is in October, November and December, and Matías, which is very early, it delivers fruit in July, August and September, so our equation is that Matías and Salvador together deliver fruit for 6 months, of high quality, very firm, with good flavor, with a diameter of 16 mm towards above and can reach 24mm gauges. This is how we push for Peru to have 6 months of quality fruit, because our main problem with Biloxi, or with the other varieties, is that the fruit goes well until October, but already in November-December the fields are tired, with fruit small, acidic, not what the market is looking for. So the varieties we offer are harvested in the designated months. We can cover 6 months of quality fruit without forcing anything.

This is part of the interview with Carlos Gereda that will be published in the 2021 edition of Blue Magazine and in which the Peruvian businessman refers to the different issues that affect the industry and analyzes the projections of the blueberry market in the new world stage that opens post-pandemic.