Peru has set its sights on opening 12 new export market destinations in the future. This follows the recent opening and first exports to Portugal, Israel and Jordan, all in the current 2022 campaign. “Our goal is to have an additional market opening before the end of this season, but we cannot know yet because it depends on various factors. ”, says Luis Miguel Vegas, general manager of the Association of Blueberry Producers of Peru (ProArándanos).

Peru has stood out in 62 international markets as the main producer and exporter of blueberries. Proarandanos estimates that the country will export around 25% more than the 250.000 tons of blueberries last year for the current 2022-2023 season.

However, the only focus is not on stellar growth but on diversifying markets, spreading risk and increasing sales opportunities for Peruvian blueberry producing and exporting companies. Given global risks and shocks, not relying too heavily on a few key markets is the lesson Peru's relatively young blueberry industry has embraced from the start. “The important thing for us is to achieve a greater diversity of markets that increase opportunities for companies. We currently have 12 destinations in the process of opening”, explains Miguel Vegas.

The opening of new markets does not happen overnight. It is a huge and continuous effort by the government and its ministries, embassies and organizations such as Senasa, the industry, various specialists and various counterpart organizations in the destination countries. It is commonly known that it takes 10-15 years to open a single new market for a commodity. This makes the rate at which Peru is able to open up new markets for blueberries the envy of competing countries.

Miguel Vegas takes a look at how Peru does it well: “Senasa has been holding bilateral technical meetings with the agencies in these destinations to determine the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. It maintains constant communication with its peers to speed up the exchange of technical information necessary for the opening of new markets. In addition, together with Proarándanos, it has been coordinating with international trade government agencies to promote the opening processes.”

It's also no small feat to keep track of exactly what step and stage each country is at on that path to finally gaining market access. “There are destinations with more advanced processes than others. Within the list of destinations in process we have Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, among others”, says Miguel Vegas.