The Peruvian Hass avocado industry made history late last week after shipping its first consignment of fruit to the US, following the opening up of the market to Peruvian suppliers.
The inaugural shipment was made by Peru’s largest agribusiness Camposol, which dispatched 40 tonnes of Hass avocados to the North American country last Thursday, according to a report by Peruvian publication Noticias Trujillo.
The fruit, packed at Camposol’s Chao-based facility in the region of La Libertad, was shipped in two separate containers from the Port of Callao; one headed for Philadelphia and the other for Los Angeles.
The shipment reportedly complied with a phytosanitary protocol recently agreed between the USDA-APHIS and its Peruvian counterpart Senasa.
Camposol operations manager Gustavo Guerrero Paretto said the shipment was the result of 10 years of efforts to negotiate access for the fruit to the US.
“Camposol has 826ha in production and a little more than 2,400ha planted with avocados,” Mr Guerrero explained. “This year we will produce approximately 13,500 tonnes and we hope in the following years to continue increasing our production significantly.”
Senasa chief Oscar Domínguez Falcón added that the organisation together with the Peruvian Hass Avocado Producers Association will this year finalise a study to demonstrate that the fruit is not a host for fruit fly.
The findings would be beneficial to the industry since fruit would require fewer phytosanitary treatments and make Peruvian avocados more competitive against other suppliers.
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