SNFL opens new Spain-Peru grape variety protocol

SNFL hails new protocol allowing direct Spain-Peru plant material shipments

January 28 , 2020

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SNFL hails new protocol allowing direct Spain-Peru plant material shipments

A new protocol sponsored by table grape breeder Special New Fruit Licensing (SNFL) will allow plant material to be shipped directly from Spain to Peru, without the need to be quarantined in Chile for two years.

SNFL, which has a Spain-based breeding program, said that Peru is a country 'brimming with potential for growth'. Interest in new table grape varieties that has increased exponentially in the last few years, it added.

An increasing number of SNFL’s plantings varieties have been developed in Peru in recent years.

However, until very recently, there was no protocol between Spain and Peru, therefore plant material from Spain had to be shipped to Chile where it had to be quarantined for two years before traveling north of the border.

In the last four years, SNFL has been working with the Peruvian National Agrarian Health Service (SENASA) and the Spanish authorities to open up Peru as a market for shipment of plant materials.

As of this month, SNFL will now be able to ship plant materials directly from their breeding center in Spain to Peru.

This will help provide faster innovation to the Peruvian table grape industry and SNFL’s partners there. During this process, SNFL has been supported by a licensed nursery in Peru, “Viveros Agronegocios Genesis” which helped to speed up much of the bureaucratic processes in SENASA.

“This chronicles an extraordinary milestone in the Peruvian viticulture industry,” said Henri Huamán, general manager of Viveros Génesi.

In the meantime, SNFL’s head lab manager, Ivan Carreño and PBR Manager Sonia Soto have prepared and shipped the first new varieties from the Spanish based breeding program in January.

“We have been coordinating the whole process between SENASA and the Spanish Agricultural Ministery for the last three years to achieve this important agreement that will greatly speed up our new varieties program in Peru,” Soto said.

In the 2016-17 season, Peru exported 285,000 tons of table grapes. Following three years later, Peru is expected to export over 400,000 tons this current season, showcasing a 40% growth.

The first Peruvian table grapevines were first introduced by the Spanish between 1520 and 1540. Only in recent years, has the country experienced large land developments in the table grape industry.