Companies and institutions from nine countries of the southern hemisphere will showcase their horticultural supply jointly in a Fruit Attraction space. The goal of the initiative is to highlight the complementarity between the crops of both hemispheres.
In "Fresh Produce Southern Hemisphere", which will be located in Hall 10 of the fairgrounds, institutional and private exhibitors from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and South Africa will congregate. That is, the countries that supply products during Europe's off-season.
Fruit Attraction, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary in this edition, will be held from October 23 to 26, with 1,600 exhibitors and the presence of 70,000 professionals from 120 countries. This edition will also feature new thematic spaces for flowers, nuts and organic products.
According to the director of Fruit Attraction 2018, Raúl Calleja, the number of participants from companies in the southern hemisphere, especially from Latin America, has been increasing with each edition.
Therefore, many collaboration agreements have been signed between companies "in order to reach European supermarket chains in a better way all year round."
Peru and its off-season supply
One of the countries participating in this "southern hemisphere" space is Peru. Its commercial advisor in the embassy in Spain, Bernardo Muñoz, has stressed that some 70 Peruvian companies will take part in an event which they consider a great opportunity to make strategic alliances with countries producing in the off-season.
"We complement each other and we want to make a solid team that stands together over time," he said. Therefore, the focus is not only on fruits and vegetables for which there are already consolidated commercial relations in place between both countries (such as asparagus, mangoes or avocados), but also on other "differentiated products that can keep a constant market presence."
Muñoz has also pinpointed another very interesting aspect regarding the participation of the countries of the southern hemisphere in Fruit Attraction. They ought to see the fair "as a gateway to the European market, and even to that of North Africa."
The potential of Peruvian cuisine is, in his opinion, another of the strategies to boost the country's agro-food trade. "We have 240 Peruvian restaurants in Spain alone." As a result, there is a demand for products that were not in this market six or seven years ago, like chili, lime or different types of peppers.
"This has put us in a new position, making it necessary to arrange weekly shipments of fresh products that were previously frozen and canned," he said.
Commercial relations between Spain and Peru
According to the data provided by the trade delegation of the Embassy of Peru, from 2015 to 2017, the Andean country exported a total of 298 products to Spain. Sales have grown by almost 21% in these two years and "there is a forecast of positive growth for 2018."
Avocados accounted for almost 25% of all these exports in 2017. The fruit is a highly demanded product and the volume shipped to Spain has grown by around 33% in the past two years.
South African citrus fruits and grapes, Argentinian seeds and vegetables, Brazilian juices and tropical crops, Chilean blueberries and plums, pineapples and melons from Costa Rica, Colombian papayas and frozen fruit, Ecuadorian bananas or Mexican berries will all have a space in the fair.
Source: efeagro.com