In the Chincha Valley, 3 hours south of Lima, desert and sand dunes, lies La Calera, one of the many large haciendas that mark the arid coast.
“Nothing grows here (we’re in one of the driest regions on the planet) and yet, thanks to clever thinking, we managed to make it work,” says Santiago Casartelli, CEO of Diamond Bridge, a subsidiary of La Calera.
Established in the 1980s, La Calera supplies about 30% of Peru’s egg market; It is also the country’s largest citrus exporter and the leading manufacturer of avocados.
Just above the cloud of fog that shrouds the capital and its environs, on the edge of the 1,500 hectares and among cactus fields, farm workers pick blueberries, the last frontier of the country’s agricultural dynamics.
In the last decade, Peru has become the world’s largest exporter of blueberries. Around 270,000 tonnes were sold last year, worth more than $1. 36 billion. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates the annual expansion rate of the crop at 123 percent. Only China and the United States produce more.
“All with a little test, just to tell us a little more about the crop, and it exceeded our expectations by up to 10 times in terms of yield and fruit quality,” Casartelli says of his plots. He plans to double the 50 blueberry hectáreas. de on the La Calera farm in Chincha this year and eventually expand it to more than 200 hectares. A similar expansion is underway at another farm in Pisco, forty-five kilometers away.
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Agriculture is one of the pillars of Peru’s economy, with exports falling from $645 million in 2000 to $8. 5 billion last year. That accounts for 20 percent of the country’s total exports, according to the central bank, and Chilean and U. S. investment is rising.
The Ministry of Agriculture predicts that by 2027 and assuming existing expansion rates, the country will overtake its Chilean neighbor, where water rights are sold at auction, making investments less attractive.
“We can manage down to the smallest detail all the variables related to the crop’s desires, which translates into smart yields and stable, high-quality fruit at all times,” says Casartelli.
Along with blueberries, the country is the world’s largest exporter of grapes and asparagus, totaling $2. 5 billion last year, and the third-largest exporter of avocados, as well as a major trader of mangoes and citrus.
Economists say the country’s good fortune is due to market-friendly policies that have boosted agriculture since the 1990s, when large-scale irrigation projects brought water from the eastern part of the Andes to Peru’s western coastal regions. Here, agriculture is concentrated near the primary areas. ports, facilitating exports.
In addition, the exchange rate, set through the independent central bank, has remained largely sound for two decades. Peru has flexible industrial agreements with the U. S. , U. K. , EU and 11 Asian countries, as well as a minimum wage that is competitive with Mexico’s, which is helping to keep hard work prices in check.
Tony Salas, who runs ACM, an agribusiness consultancy, says coastal irrigation as part of a task introduced by the government of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s has turned the country into a “natural greenhouse,” allowing it to take advantage of its geography.
“With much more radiation and photosynthetic activity than in any other country in the world, thanks to Peru’s location so close to the equator and the lack of rainfall along the coast, you get much higher crop yields,” says Salas.
Government incentives also inspire personal investment. However, Gabriel Amaro, president of AGAP, Peru’s largest agricultural association, says that demanding situations persist, despite “a consolidated industry” helped by generation and accumulated know-how.
High fertilizer prices, due to the effect of the war in Ukraine, as well as shipping disruption and market instability due to Covid-19 and weather updates, have affected agriculture, along with local political instability. “We want stability in the government so it can make decisions,” says Amaro.
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Christian Barrantes, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, admits that political instability may simply erode investor confidence. But he adds that the government is moving forward with large-scale irrigation projects, adding Chavimochic in the north and Majes-Siguas in the south, which combined are expected to irrigate more than 200,000 hectares of land for agricultural purposes. They are expected to be completed in 3 years and farmland will be opened in 4 years.
“We want to continue those projects to expand them to water and, ultimately, to the amount of agricultural land,” Barrantes says.
El Niño is also a climate phenomenon that warms the surface of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and causes global adjustments in temperature and precipitation. This is expected to affect agriculture in northern Peru, where heavy rains are expected, and in the south, where drought is likely. .
However, despite the challenges, Casartelli is confident that his blueberries will continue to thrive. “In the next few years, several new types will arrive from Peru,” he says. “It’s a big step forward from what we were generating before. “.