While Peru's table grape exports have continued to go from strength to strength, the effects of El Niño and an alternate bearing year for mango production meant shipments of the tropical fruit were down substantially. 

Website Agraria.pe reported the Andean country's table grape export volumes reached 287,000 metric tons (MT) for the 2014-15 season, representing a 20.7% year-on-year increase.

Mango exports, on the other hand, have so far taken somewhat of a tumble. At present the export volumes for the season are 97,129MT, which is 31% lower than the same point during the last campaign.

A representative of Peru-based consultancy firm Inform@ccion reportedly said a little more than half of the grape shipments had left from the port of Callao, with much of the rest departing from Paita.

Of the total shipments leaving from both ports, around three-quarters were made up of the Red Globe variety.

"We continue to grow at an accelerated rate and we continue to have strong volumes of Red Globe, this variety is seeing high volumes at the global level and the markets are being put under pressure," Inform@ccion president Benjamín Cillóniz was quoted as saying.

He pointed out that much of the country's production growth was coming from the north, especially Piura.

"Piura is almost on the same productive level and the southern area, mainly Ica, and every year new grape vines continue to be planted," Cillóniz was quoted as saying.

"In the nurseries there are lots of plants being grown too, indicating that the curve will continue to shoot upwards."

Cillóniz said there were still various companies in the north who were learning the ropes on the productive side of things, and had recently achieved reasonable volumes that are sustainable for each variety.

He also believed the north would soon overtake the south in terms of production output.

Mangoes in line with estimates

In terms of Peru's mango exports, an industry head told the publication the sharp drop to just 4,223 containers having been exported at the end of week 15 - as opposed to 6,152 this time last year - had not come as a surprise.

Peruvian Mango Exporters' Association (APEM) general manager Juan Carlos Rivera told Agraria volumes that had so far been exported were only 1% lower than forecasts made in July 2014.

"We had quite an accurate projection - it's a job we've been doing for many years not and we have a certain degree of reliability. This year the exports have been 30% less than last season but that's not a surprise and we have known since July how production would be week by week," Rivera was quoted as saying.

A little more than half of shipments were sent to Europe, with around a third destined for the U.S.

Both production and shipments are expected to increase for the 2015-16 campaign.

"Despite the forecast of a warm fall season, the high temperatures won't necessarily make the mango plants stop flowering as they are many factors that make them flower - one of them is the climate, and the other is the work the growers do like pruning and irrigation, and the other side is the plant's phenological state," Rivera was quoted as saying.

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