The passion fruit is a crop that needs to be re-empowered to be competitive, since it is not enough to produce all year round to differentiate itself in the international market. This was announced by Max Alvarado, vice president of ADEX during the presentation of the I Strengthening of the Passion Fruit Chain Congress.
The trade union spokesman said Peru was a large producer of this fruit with 6,000 hectares devoted to it along the entire coast, and that in 2015 it had exported 10,503 tons of pulp with values for US $35 million.
Then, in 2016 exports increased to 11,863 tons of pulp for US $46 million. In 2017, however, even though shipments continued to grow in volume and reached 12,200 tons, the value achieved decreased and to US $39 million.
"This is because Vietnam, a strong competitor that produces passion fruit pulp throughout the whole year, managed to enter the market with low prices. As a result, we had to lower our prices. In 2016 the price per ton abroad was 5,500 to 6,000 dollars; today it's 4,100 to 4,200 a ton, despite the problem of El Niño in 2017," he said.
Production remains at a good pace and exports between January and June 2018 have reached US $22 million. Prices remain the same as last year and the country has exported 8,800 tons of pulp, which would indicate that the country will surpass the figures achieved in 2017.
The vice president of ADEX said they had created a subcommittee to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri) and to develop a comprehensive program to improve the productive areas of passion fruit. INIA and companies from the sector, such as Selva Industrial and Arca Continental, participated in this work.
Source: agraria.pe