Beta Agroindustrial Complex installed 250 hectares of blueberries this year, which are added to the 1.250 hectares that the company already had, totaling 1.500 hectares of the aforementioned berry, said its general manager, Lionel Arce Orbegozo.

He explained that, of the initial 1.250 hectares, 1.000 ha were in production and 250 ha will come into production this campaign (2022/2023). While the 250 ha installed this year will go into production in the next 2023/2024 campaign.

He pointed out that the 1.500 ha of blueberries are located in Jayanca, Olmos and Ica, these last two areas being where the new areas were installed. He added that the varieties that the company has are mainly Ventura and new licensed varieties. They no longer have Biloxi.

Lionel Arce stated that this increase in blueberry areas is due to the fact that it was already approved within the company's investment plan, which is under permanent review. In addition, he said that they are evaluating installing blueberries abroad, seeing interesting markets such as Ecuador and Morocco. At the moment, the company does not have cultivation areas outside the country.

Beta would export 20.000 tons of blueberries in the 2022/2023 campaign
Regarding the 2022/2023 campaign, which began in June (it was brought forward a month), he said that Beta expects to dispatch 20.000 tons of blueberries (19.000 tons fresh and 1.000 tons frozen), compared to the 14.000 tons shipped in the previous campaign (13.000 tons fresh and 1.000 tons frozen).

He indicated that his client has been making shipments of frozen blueberries, due to the high supply of fresh blueberries from Peru. "In the 2022/2023 campaign, Peru plans to export 280 thousand tons of fresh blueberries, 50.000 tons more than in the previous campaign (2021/2022), which will affect the market," he said. However, he highlighted that the return of fresh fruit is higher.

Regarding the destination markets for Beta blueberries, these would be directed to the United States, Europe (England) and Asia (China and Japan). He highlighted that they also send early blueberries to Brazil.