In the last few days, the Peruvian press has shared headlines concerning the table grape industry, that point in the same direction: the 2023-2024 grape export campaign started on a good footing. But is this really the case?
In response, Manuel Yzaga Dibós, president of the Peruvian Association of Table Grape Producers (Provid), released a brief video in which he implied that misleading news was spreading about the table grape industry in Peru; it was being made to believe that it was growing when what had happened was an early harvest and lower productivity due to the weather phenomenons that occurred (cyclone Yaku and El Niño).
So with this, will Peru continue to be the world champion in table grape exports?
Benjamín Cillóniz, one of Peru's main agricultural referents and general manager of Exportadora Safco Perú, says that the campaign in Ica is not over yet.
"If we consider that last season we had a loss that I estimated at 700 thousand boxes, due to road blockades, and as long as something does not happen that causes us to lose fruit that is about to be harvested, Ica should increase its exports at the end of the season. The worst thing for Ica has been the extreme paranoia that the El Niño phenomenon generated in local banks. Those of us who did not have good liquidity have had a hard time because the banks assumed that we were all going to do poorly, without making the correct differentiation; it has not been easy to obtain the financing that we obtained in past campaigns," says Cillóniz.
Concerning the optimistic headlines in the Peruvian press, Benjamín explains that what is happening is that a comparison is being made with the previous season, in the same months and, due to the early harvest of the current season.
"2023 ended with a purely statistical, and in some cases, accounting increase, but not very practical or realistic when we analyze the situation of the industry," says Cilloniz.
When analyzing the current season, everything seems to indicate that the northern zone of Peru will end up more affected than what was reported in initial projections; and it is unlikely that the south will harvest enough volume to reach the 72 million boxes of last season.
"In my opinion, the increase in temperatures from April to October brought more positives than negatives for table grapes in Ica. The positives have to do with shorter cycles, improvements in bud break, the capacity for thinning, etc. But it must also be said that having a shorter cycle may result in lower berry weight, or in a higher incidence of some pests, which is negative; in any case, it was something that the technical teams were able to foresee, taking precautions, and it has worked well for us, so far."
Cillóniz points out that temperatures have normalized, approximately, since October, so he believes that so far it has been a good productive year for Ica.
"Table grapes are the most difficult crop I know so anyone can screw up at any time. On the market side, we have already talked about the shortage generated by the loss of almost 40% of the Californian production, as well as the lower supply from the northern zone of Peru; so everything looks good, so far, on that side, for Ica,"says Cilloniz.
At the close of this article, Cilloniz shared the following information with FreshFruitPortal.com: "The latest statistics on table grape exports from Peru are out and the drop in the north is greater than expected; assuming that in the north there aren't many fields with plastic covers, we can estimate that the drop in that region will be of approximately 10 million boxes, regarding the 33 that Piura and Lambayeque added last season.
Ica is 12 million short of matching last season's number. As long as something unusual does not happen, I would think it should achieve and perhaps surpass that number, but what is a fact, at this point, is that Peru is falling in volumes this season," concluded Cilloniz.
