Imported supplies of gooseberries are currently slim and may stay like that for a few months.
“The supplies are tight. One side of Colombia we work with (where regions such as Boyaca and Cundinamarca are located), there’s a lack of rain,” says Pedro Rodriguez of Panamerican Farms Inc. in Camarillo, Ca. “So the production for the next few months will be low. Until last week, we were still receiving product steadily.”
While Panamerican works solely with Colombian gooseberries, which are grown year-round, Peru and Ecuador are also producers of the fruit though they may only ship to limited regions.
At the same time, demand for gooseberries is steady. “We’re getting calls from our regular customers as well as some new ones looking for product because of the limited supplies,” says Rodriguez.
More and more consumers
In fact, in the six years Panamerican and Rodriguez have worked with gooseberries, Rodriguez has seen consumption of the unique fruit increase over that time. “Younger people are trying it and there’s more publicity around them,” he says. “We’ve seen steady and increasing demand, but not too high, in the last few years particularly.”
Meanwhile, pricing on the fruit has been steady says Rodriguez.
Looking ahead, Rodriguez does wonder about future volumes of gooseberries. “We’re actually also trying to look for product with some other suppliers because of limited availability,” he says. “The growers and shippers say it’s going to take a few months for this shortage to go back to normal.”
For more information:
Pedro Rodriguez
Panamerican Farms, Inc.
Tel: +1 (805) 275-6000
pedro@panamericanfarms.com
www.panamericanfarms.com