According to William Daga Avalos, a specialist in fruit trees of Sierra and Selva Exportadora, Peru currently has about 5 thousand hectares of passion fruit installed, mainly in Lambayeque (Motupe, Chiclayo, Jayanca), La Libertad (Viru), Ancash (Huarmey, Casma, Santa), and Lima (Barranca, Huacho).
Daga Avalos also said that the average yield of the aforementioned fruit reached 20 tons per hectare. 80% of the production goes to the industry (passion fruit pulp) and the rest goes to the national market as fresh fruit, he said.
One of the problems, he said, is that there has been a lot of mixture of varieties (Peruvian, Brazilian, Colombian) which has decreased the fruit's quality and brought about problems in its commercialization.
"Currently the fruit has a low Brix degree, between 12 or 13 degrees, and the industry is very worried because the international market requires a sweet passion fruit pulp that has 15 or 16 Brix degrees. If the industry does not buy the fruit, all the production will go to the national market and prices will fall," he said.
Peru's passion fruit, which has an orange pulp, has an internationally-acclaimed prestige. Meanwhile, the passion fruit from Taiwan, Malaysia, and China, has a brown pulp and a cheaper price.
However, he said, the country's passion fruit could lose its prestige if its Brix degrees aren't increased. This would harm exports, which currently amount to around US $50 million. The main export markets for this fruit are the United States, Europe, and, to a lesser extent, Asia.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri), through INIA and Sierra and Selva Exportadora were taking action to improve the quality of passion fruit, he said. "The varieties must be improved, there must be better agronomic management and better insertion of the small producer into the market."
"If we have a poor quality fruit no one will buy it, prices will fall, and producers will not grow this crop. But, if the quality of the passion fruit is improved (increasing the Brix degree) the area installed could be doubled and exports could amount to US $100 million, which would benefit producers, the industry, and the country," he stated.
Daga Avalos said the country should take advantage of the edge of the forest (Satipo, Chanchamayo, Tingo Maria, Aucayacu, Madre de Dios) to turn them into passion fruit producing areas.
Source: agraria.pe