During a training workshop on good agricultural practices (GAP) aimed at 80 producers from La Libertad in the District Municipality of Laredo, Sierra Exportadora stated that La Libertad exports 99 percent of the avocado produced in its region.
La Libertad is also the first producer of avocado in Peru, they said.
The head of Sierra Exportadora's National Program for Hass avocado and other fruit, Vicente Zegarra Suarez, was in charge of training and stated that, according to official figures, La Libertad currently has an annual output of 65,005,912 tons, i.e. 36 percent of the national total in 2014.
Thus, the business plans for avocado that Sierra Exportadora promotes in the region are aimed at improving and enhancing the quality of the fruit to increase its production and competitiveness.
In this regard, the head of Sierra Exportadora's headquarters in La Libertad, Zulma Jeri Campana, said Sierra Exportadora provided producers with technical assistance and market coordination.
She also said that the various trainings offered in the region of La Libertad, were aimed at strengthening the producer's knowledge of good agricultural practices so as to achieve Global GAP certification.
"This certification would definitely increase the producer's competitiveness and open up new markets, as the avocados exported from this region are currently only being sent to the US market," she said.
The Decentralized Headquarters of Sierra Exportadora in La Libertad is working with avocado producer associations located in the Valle de Santa Catalina, and in the districts of Simbal and Poroto (Shiran) in the province of Trujillo, and in the district of Chao, province of Viru.
According to the Directorate of Economic Studies and Agricultural Information of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI), avocado exports in 2014 amounted to $308 million dollars, 66.2 percent more than in 2013. With this export volume, Peru became the second largest exporter of avocados in the world, as it surpassed Chile, South Africa and USA.
Source: andina.com.pe