Van der Lans International's commercial director, Thijs Terwindt, recently visited this Dutch company's fruit suppliers in Peru. He saw that El Niño had considerably affected production. "That's going to make various products' availability challenging," he says.
The importer's tour included the northern province of Piura. "Mango cultivation in that area has been hit particularly hard. In Tambogrande, growers' yields are down as much as 50-60%. The early grape crops - both pitted and seedless - are also expected to be 30% lower. Grape exports started early because of the heat. During my visit, I noticed that some varieties were on the small side."
"The Northern Hemisphere demand for Peruvian grapes will generally outweigh that supply this season, especially since the North American market is clamoring for those grapes after Hurricane Hilary extensively damaged the Californian grape crop. They're willing to pay handsomely, too, And they mainly import the 'easy' 8.2 kg packaging, so exporters don't have to hassle with trays," says Thijs.
"There are still European seedless grapes on the market, but those will be gone by late October. Greece, for example, is already facing quality problems. Brazil usually supplies the first overseas grapes," Thijs explains, "but even those prices are high, and you have to add import duties to that. We see the same general trend from Peru: a lot on the market in recent years with tight availability and high prices."
Peru's late avocado production is also considerably lower this year. That country's early Okitsu mandarin volumes for 2024 do not look promising yet either. "Strangely, this variety's trees have few fruit." Van der Lans also imports pomegranates from all over Peru. "Normally, they start harvesting in January, but, this year, they expect to pick the first pomegranates in the south as early as December 20. That early start could be interesting for sales, though that's still conjecture," Thijs concludes.
For more information:
Thijs Terwindt
Van der Lans International
18 Gerrit van der Veenlaan
3743 DN, Baarn, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 356 422 622
Email: thijs@vanderlans.com
Website: www.vanderlans.com