Peruvian asparagus exporter eyes gourmet U.K. market - FreshFruitPortal.com

Peruvian asparagus exporter eyes gourmet U.K. market

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Peruvian asparagus exporter eyes gourmet U.K. market

The U.S. has historically been the mainstay market for Peruvian asparagus exports, but shipper Ricardo Medina hopes to make more impact across the Atlantic Ocean in Great Britain.

Medina, who heads up exports atĀ Ica-basedĀ EspĆ”rragos del PerĆŗ,Ā says companies have to be selective when sourcing the vegetable from Peru given the sector is made up of many small players, often leadingĀ to varied quality.

"There is great quality asparagus, but there is some that is coming out with terrible quality. This is a reflection of Peru - it is full of inequality," he tells www.freshfruitportal.com.

Peru currently ships around 60% of its asparagus to the U.S., whereĀ according to a recent report from the Peruvian Asparagus Importers Association (PAIA)Ā the South American countryĀ accounted for more than 46% of imports of the vegetable last year at 431.1 million pounds.

And when it comes to value Peru does even better than its peers in the U.S., accounting for 49%.

But the pricesĀ have historically been even better in the U.K., which currently accounts for 15% of Peru's supply and is where Medina sees a strong future.

"The United Kingdom is the perfect market. It is a market where there are four or five big receivers and they have the distribution," he says.

"The market is totally organized. It's perfect," he says, clarifying the only problem is there is a very low tolerance for product that is not up to spec.

Compared to the fastidious British tastes, the U.S. is a much easier export marketĀ for Peruvian asparagus growers with importers usually willing to have stems of 23cm (nine inches) that can be cut down to 21cm (8.3 inches).

In the U.K. however, buyers are much more depending and Medina says most of the Peruvian industry is not yet prepared logistically to meet the British requirements.

"There are presentations of asparagus of 13cm (5.1 inches). In this sense, there are different requirements - they are small shipments of 400 boxes every two weeks," Medina says of the British market.

He says this means companies have to take the time to prepare these special presentations, implying staff working nights and a lot more effort in terms of flights and logistics.

"Then comes the question, who can standardize those prices? In Peru there are just two or three companies that market the most of that," he says.

What is also driving the push to more gourmet markets like the U.K. is increasing competition with Mexico in the U.S.

"If we only sell to the United States we do not capitalize on all the gourmet markets that exist in Europe and the Middle East."

He adds that China recently opened its doors to Peruvian asparagus.

"If China follows the same gourmet trend of the British market, it would be complicated to amass our asparagus quickly, as the same logistics and quality problems of the United Kingdom would present themselves," he says.

As for the company, Medina says EspĆ”rragos del PerĆŗ aims to consolidate its presence on its land, with 25 hectares of established production which already has high yields. However, the company recently expanded its surface area to 200 hectares on another farm, where it aims toĀ transfer skills and experience from the smallerĀ operation.

He says harvests in July and December will be exported via the companies Agricola Athos and Agricola Chapi.

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