Peru’s biggest asparagus producer Camposol is set to increase the proportion of fresh white asparagus it sells in the coming seasons. The company currently sells around 30 per cent of its white asparagus crop to the fresh market, while the rest goes for processing, but it now plans to maximise fresh sales in light of strong demand on international markets.
In line with the trend throughout Peru, Camposol’s white asparagus output has been in decline in recent years and is projected to keep falling until 2016 in spite of the company’s plans to increase its planted area by 200ha in 2014. However, it said the decline is not likely to affect fresh volumes. “By prioritising the markets in an adequate way, we will have sufficient volumes available to maintain our customer programmes in the forthcoming years,” the company said.
Last year, Camposol’s white and green asparagus sales reached US$63.4m, a fall of 6.9 per cent on 2012. About 63 per cent of the company's total produce sales went to the fresh market, compared with just 35 per cent in 2009.
This year the company will continue its asparagus promotion campaign, which will feature tastings in selected supermarkets an a variety of point of sale materials. The company said that contrary to previous years, the objective is no longer to increase sales volume but to “communicate that asparagus is a premium product and that, as it all markets, quality has its price”.
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