He explains that it’s a difficult season this year compared to last year. “Exporting size 5 and size 6 was very good business last season. However, because China is exporting big volumes of very big sizes we only get inquiries for the bigger sizes such as size 7 and 8. This makes it difficult as, in a normal production, you would only have between 30%-40% of these big sizes per hectare.”
White Lion Foods came up with a solution for the smaller sizes. As Byron explains, you have to be more creative in tough times. “Obviously, the costs to ship the smaller sizes to different clients are cheaper. Moreover, we came up with the idea of selling the smaller sizes in a net packaging to the US market. We include 4 to 5 units in a net packaging, which gives an added value and we sell them for example to supermarkets. The US customers are more likely to buy garlic in such packaging than loose garlic.”
“Luckily, we are about to start the harvest of our purple garlic. This variety will be mainly exported to Mexico. Only the biggest sizes will be gathered and exported in 1 or 2 containers to Australia. The Australian market is not familiar with this variety, however they were very content with the export of last year. We have high hopes for the season of purple export, so this should make up a little for the white garlic season. The purple garlic is produced in a very humid region, therefore drying the garlic takes a little longer. I think first export will take place in the beginning of November”, says Byron.
He concludes: “This situation will remain unchanged till November/December, when the Chinese season is almost over. We have to accept this, try to comply and be competitive. This is when the loyalty of your clients becomes important. Nevertheless, this is how our business works. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We had very good expectations for this season, and I believe everyone had these expectations. However, now the situation proves to be not that positive at all.”
For more information:
Byron Machuca
White Lion Foods
Peru
T: (51) 9873 93772
E: byron@whitelionfoods.com
www.whitelionfoods.com