The project to produce and export melons developed by the agribusiness Gandules is paralysed, said its chief executive, John Varilias Velasquez.
"This was an experimental project. While we did harvest the adequate quantity and quality of melons, the foreign market failed Peru because they want us to send fresh melon and not frozen or processed ones," he said.
In this regard, he said that what had stopped the melon export project had been the time it took for the melons to arrive at their destination markets, as it took them two weeks to get to the United States and about a month to arrive to Europe, and health institutions were seeking for a better product quality when it entered the port.
"The improvement of the country's infrastructure and logistics will give us a better chance to dispatch this product and we would work on this project again," he said, noting that the agribusiness company he represents has acquired the know how of the business via their experimental project. "We have everything that is needed, such as the seeds, technologies, but the project is currently on stand-by," he concluded.
In 2013 Gandules led Peruvian melon exports with sales of $141,000 dollars. Its main markets were the Netherlands and Chile. That same year they made trial shipments to the United States and other countries in Europe.
Source: agraria.pe