The region of Piura has become a major table grape-producing area and it is called to be the main producing area in the medium term, however, to achieve this it must overcome some challenges. Agraria.pe spoke with the President of the consulting firm Inform@cción, Benjamín Cilloniz, who said that the challenges were: diversifying grape varieties and being more efficient in their production costs.
"The big question that Piura has is how will the varietal distribution be composed in the coming years. Up until last year everyone thought it was suitable to plant a percentage of Red globe, but this variety is much tighter in terms of yield per hectare, so it is going to be a challenge to see how producers will begin to migrate to other varieties that, initially, may be a little harder to produce, but that should assure that this crop remains profitable," he said.
According to him, Peru exported more than 35 million boxes (8.2 kilos each) in the 2014/2015 campaign. The port of Paita dispatched 14 million boxes of grapes, 75% of which were of the Red globe variety, which demonstrates the high concentration of this variety. 18 million boxes were exported in the Southern area, 70% of which also corresponded to Red globe.
Regarding cost efficiency, Cilloniz said that the northern area performed double pruning, which generated a cost overrun of nearly $6,000 dollars per hectare, while other regions, such as Ica, didn't perform it. Thus, the grape produced in the North has a higher cost, so it requires that sales prices be higher so that cultivation remains profitable.
"We have to strive to gain much more efficiency in costs, especially in the labour force, in order to be competitive. Currently, even though we have a lower labour cost unit in comparison with the bulk of producer countries, we hire more wages per hectare than the rest of the table grape producing areas," he stated.
In this regard, he said that double pruning, thinning, and other tasks were activities in which Peru failed to be as efficient as other countries. "Perhaps we've given ourselves some luxuries due to the high prices. We have tried to make sure we meet all the parameters that the markets demand from us and sometimes we neglected controlling costs; however, the increasing supply will undoubtedly force us to become more efficient, that is important."
Packaging and cold infrastructure is needed
The President of Inform@cción also spoke about infrastructure in logistics issues. In this regard, he said, there were some very important investments in the port of Paita last year so there are currently more shipping companies, giving exporters a greater choice to ship their fruit containers.
However, he stated, the limitation that the northern part currently has is an issue regarding their packing and cold storage capacity because many grapes have been planted in the North, but this growth hasn't gone hand in hand with investment in infrastructure for these services.
"The North needs more packaging and cold storage facilities and that they be more efficient, so the fruit can be packed at the right time, in the correct way and so we can ensure a higher quality of fruit at destination," he said.
Source: agraria.pe