Growing a variety of crops key to survive El Niño effects for Peruvian exporter
“The growing and exporting of a variety of crops from Peru is the key to survive the recent climatic challenges in this country for the producer and exporter Fruitxchange. Giuseppe Accetta, Commercial Director of Fruitxchange, says they grow and export table grapes, ginger and just harvested and exported their first batch of dragon fruit to Europe.
“We are currently the largest exporter of Peruvian ginger. Fruitxchange exports more than 500 containers a year of Peruvian products. Our products are exported to three continents, mainly to the USA, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Ghana, Senegal,” states Accetta.
He says their table grapes really suffered under the dry and hot conditions caused by El Niño. “Regarding grapes, last year we unfortunately suffered the negative effects of the El Niño phenomenon. In fact, our production for the 2023 season has significantly reduced. Productivity was significantly lower and the quality was not the best. Fortunately, the climate now seems to have returned to normal and the performance of the plants gives hope for a season with good productivity and good quality.”
Fruitxchange is located in the north of Peru in Piura. It began its business in 2010 by buying and exporting table grapes. At first, they bought their products from small producers. “In 2011 we bought 200 hectares of land and started planting table grapes. Today we have our own production of table grapes in the Allison, Ivory and Red Globe varieties and also with a 5,000 m2 warehouse. Since 2019 we have also started exporting avocados, blueberries and ginger.”
Expanded into dragon fruit production
“This year we started a pilot project for the production of dragon fruit (pitahaya). At the moment we are harvesting and our dragon fruit has already arrived on the European market with great success and great satisfaction from our customers. We plan to increase our investments in dragon fruit production and hope to become an important supplier of this product in the coming years.””
*This article is excerpted from freshplaza.com website, published April 23, 2024