Colombian Agriculture Minister Aurelio Iragorri Valencia has hailed the country's inaugural exports of fresh golden berries to the United States without cold treatment, which is expected to help improve fruit quality and reduce logistics costs.

In a release, the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) said the first airfreight shipments of the fruit - also known as cape gooseberries, physalis, uchuva and aguaymanto - had a total volume of 283kg (624lbs), split between New York (306lbs), Los Angeles (212lbs) and Miami (106lbs).

The milestone comes after an agreement was finalized in June when treatment restrictions were lifted for growers in the departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca with farms above 2,200 meters (7,220 feet).

The golden berries came from the grower-exporters Frutireyes and Andes Export Company, who expressed their satisfaction and claimed "the expectations are very positive because it is a large market, and the fact that this product can enter without cold treatment means more opportunities for this fruit as it improves its quality and that will be reflected in improved competitiveness".

"Until now the only exports that had been made to the U.S. were done with cold treatment, which led to a loss of fruit quality, less shelf life and greater logistics costs for operations," said Iragorri Valencia.

"We predict a great future for the uchuva, a fruit of economic importance that has experienced export growth, taking second place in overseas sales in Colombia after bananas.

"The fruit will arrive fresh on Americans' tables, which gives them competitiveness against other fruits and uchuvas that could arrive from Ecuador, Chile, Peru and South Africa."

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