In this installment of the ‘Agronometrics In Charts’ series, Sarah Ilyas studies the state of the Peruvian blueberry season. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

Peru has managed to establish itself as the largest exporter of blueberries in the world, conquering markets such as the United States and China. In order to diversify the destinations of its blueberries the country is looking to expand into other markets.

From January to April 2022, Peruvian exports of fresh blueberries totaled $146 million, reflecting an increase of 117 percent compared to the same period last year, according to information collected from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur). 

During this time, the main market was the U.S., accounting for 55 percent of the total volume, followed by the Netherlands with 23 percent, China with 12 percent, the UK with 5 percent, and other countries with the remaining 5 percent. 

At the height of the 2021/22 season, 8.8 K tonnes of blueberries were recorded, displaying a 28 percent increase compared to the peak volumes recorded in the 2020/2021 season. 

The 2022-2023 Peruvian blueberry campaign began in week 18 with 99 K kgs of incoming blueberries being recorded in week 28.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

In addition to better flavor and size, growers have also increased organic production. Pricing in the 2021/22 season ranged from $13.29 per package to $32.25 per package. Pricing this season will largely be dependent on incoming volumes and demand.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Peru is now the #1 exporter of blueberries in the world owing to the rise of this crop’s agricultural exports, with the recent inclusion of the Israeli market, Peruvian blueberries can now be sold in 62 different countries. 

In the 2021–2022 campaign, Peru exported 222,714 tonnes and the production area expanded by 17,707 hectares.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

All pricing for domestic US produce represents the spot market at Shipping Point (i.e. packing house/climate controlled warehouse, etc.). For imported fruit, the pricing data represents the spot market at Port of Entry.

You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions.

If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 21 commodities we currently track.