The president of Inka's Berries, Carlos Gereda, announced that the Peruvian company plans to start shipping new blueberry varieties in the 2023-2024 campaign.
"We'll be marketing three varieties of premium blueberries that we've been researching and testing for five years. These varieties have a great flavor, fruit consistency, and post-harvest life. We hope they are very well accepted in the Asian and European markets, which are the markets that pay the most for premium varieties," he said.
Currently, the company produces the Biloxi, Salvador, and Matías varieties. The Salvador and Matías varieties were developed by the company in 2017 and 2020, respectively. However, Gereda stated, at the end of this year there will be a varietal replacement. "We are going to use the 90 hectares that we have of Biloxi to produce the three new varieties; in addition, of the 200 hectares (in Chambara) that we are going to incorporate to plant next year," stated Gereda, who added that a Belgian development bank had financed this project with 15 million dollars.
The Matías, Salvador, and the three varieties that will soon enter into production were created in Peru and are co-owned by the University of Georgia with which the company has had an alliance since 2012.
Perspectives
Inka's Berries expects to export 4 million kilos of blueberries in the campaign that began in July and will last until March. In the 2023-2024 season, they expect to export 7 million kilos of blueberries, at least 3 million kilos of which will be of the new varieties.
Gereda also stated that they project that, with the new releases, the value per kilogram will improve by an additional 0.50 cents over the average market price.
Source: gestion.pe