Peru: ProArándanos aims for full industry participation
To make the most of the tremendous growth underway for Peru's blueberry industry, the country's growers recently made the decision to join forces under a united organization to work on common goals. To better understand the initiative, www.freshfruitportal.com spoke with Peruvian Blueberry Growers' Association (ProArándanos) president Miguel Bentín.
Bentín said the group was formalized one month ago with six growers, but ProArándanos was in the process of incorporating almost 100% of Peru's private growers, which would likely take the total membership to 14. 
"The majority of initiatives are in the coastal zone, starting from Trujillo...there are also some initiatives in the Sierra and we are incorporating everyone that is involved in this crop to the whole," he said.
When asked about what prompted the formation, the industry leader said there was a need for growers to organize together in order to progress.
"Associative experiences have been very successful in Peru and it is always easier for them to be successful when they are formed at an early stage, because when the crop has already started to develop too much it makes it much more complicated to group interests and companies.
"This is the reason why it has been formed early and the main objectives are to consolidate a single voice of the blueberry sub-sector and activities that are technical, commercial and institutional."
Those involved in ProArándanos are still in the initial processes required for establishing the industry body.
"As an example, we are currently working on recording inputs for the National Agricultural Health Service (Senasa), forming an agenda of activities related to the logical market issue, which is supporting existing protocols, improving them and obtaining them, depending on the market we're speaking about," Bentín said.
He said while protocols were in place for U.S. access, they were "relatively limited" and needed improvement, while the industry body would also focus on opening Asian markets.
Photo: www.shutterstock.com
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