Peru's ginger industry had another difficult campaign says Marco Salas Cueva, general manager and partner of Jalhuca Amazonia. "It has been a very difficult campaign for many years, due to the limited supplies of raw materials and also a market that has been characterised by atypical responses, we started the campaign with air shipments in April, with a high demand, even until the first maritime shipments around June and July, later the market has been characterised by having a very measured demand until today."
He says the price of ginger has fluctuated widely in markets. "There have been moments of price increases that apparently were too soon. In October prices had been reached that are regularly reached at the end of November in years with little production such as this campaign, which has generated a lot of caution from importers, and caused a slight shortage at times at the destination. To date, we are dispatching our last containers in a still conservative scenario with high prices, but with low volumes."
Salas Cueva says as a result many exporters have already stopped sending containers. "Mainly because prices became very speculative in the first weeks of the year and many have decided not to risk and end their campaign because quality at the end of the campaign is also a risk factor. As Jalhuca Amazonia we always have a volume reserved to supply all our customers at the end of the campaign. Therefore, we will have some last shipments to meet our commitments, hoping to finish our campaign in week 9 or 10."
He says they also had a high demand for turmeric in recent weeks. Shipping availability is also an issue he notes. "This has increased prices at origin, as well as ginger we always have some volume for these last weeks, but they have not been enough to supply the demand of our customers. We hope to restart the new campaign as soon as air freight and the maturity of the product allow it. This last half year the logistics issue in general has been very uncertain, so we will not yet be able to be certain of making air shipments and what would continue would be to start the new maritime campaign around week 21 or 22."
Salas Cueva says they will have higher volumes for the new ginger season from Peru. "For the next campaign, Peru in general will have a higher volume of harvest, which according to our data will be around 25% more volume."
US market growth prospects look good
He also expects to see greater demand in the US market. "With the new policies in the United States, many of the exporters believe that our greatest opportunities will be in this destination. We hope to obtain a growth in volume on both coasts of the United States, we are also working on the quality of arrivals and perhaps on obtaining some more certificates to be able to achieve this growth," concludes Salas Cueva.
For more information:
Marco Salas Cueva
Jalhuca Amazonia SAC
Tel: +51 949 620606
[email protected]