The Shuman Perú Produce company, dedicated to the production and commercialization of sweet onions in the Ica region, plans to increase its total shipments abroad by more than 15%.
This was highlighted by the company's general manager, Luis Torres Zenteno, who added that 90% of shipments are destined for the United States.
"We had a growth of almost 15% in 2016 compared to 2015. Our goal is to grow a similar percentage or higher this 2017. In these 10 years of work, we have the satisfaction of not having stopped growing in any year", he said.
He recalled that in 2006, the year its subsidiary settled in Peru, its representative exported seven containers of onion to the United States and in 2016 added 800 containers to the same market.
"The reason our increase has been large in numbers is that we do not like to make growth leaps, because it is a problem to exponentially grow in agricultural crops as we are exposed to cycles of good and bad prices, and as those of us in this business know, that this is something that always happens. Making jumps in the growth, can sooner or later be counter-productive to us," he explained.
On the other hand, he said that in the agricultural products business, such as yellow or sweet onions, it is not necessary to have a large number of markets, but to identify good customers, because growth can be achieved by meeting the needs of those few customers.
"In this business relationships, and the familiarity that you get with clients is important, because though they are few, they demand a lot of volume", said Torres Zenteno.
In that sense, he argued that in the following years, rather than opening new markets, his intention is to consolidate existing ones. "We have some destinations where we have not more than three years and we do not want to neglect to venture into new ones", he said.
The Perú subsidiary company although sending almost their entire onion offer to its parent company, Shuman Produce INC in the United States - for their distribution to the different markets - also supplies other markets. These include Argentina, Chile, Canada, Guatemala, Spain, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Brazil and Colombia.
Source: agraria.pe