Producers in Peru are already looking forward to a recovery in the 2024 season after a challenging season last year. The table grape producer Alonso Puga Chief Executive Director of Proserla, says in the past season in Peru the weather effects was very adverse on their production: "Our harvest was affected by the cyclone Yaku in March 2023 and the climatic changes during our winter (we had a winter with higher temperatures 4 degrees over the historic average) affected grapes, as the production cycle was shorter, some plagues and diseases were more aggressive and the bunch weights were lower than historical averages."
He says that a hot winter made for low flowering in crops such as Mangoes and some blueberries varieties. "These are all consequence of the El Niño phenomenon. In our case we finished with 45% less grape production. "
Puga says they finished harvesting one month earlier last year. "We finished on November 30th, that is one month earlier. We expected to harvest 635,000 boxes, we only reached 375,500 boxes. Many growers are in this situation and we are trying to manage that."
He says the Peruvian Government is looking to help not only the table grape producers but all the economic activities that includes agriculture, fishing and commerce at all scales, small and cooperative companies, through providing some financial assistance. "Government is preparing some financial loans to reactivate growers but it is taking time. It could be useful in the way of recovering all the agricultural activity (growers, providers, etc). Meanwhile we are facing this 2024 as a new challenge, a year that made us think and to try different ways to manage our vineyards. We focused on cultivating and producing our own biological bacteria's, such as Bacillus Subtilis and Trichoderma sp. We would rather put organic matter into the soil than inorganic fertilizers. At this moment, our vineyards looks vigorous and the weather helped, due to the rainy season that finally didn't happen."
The heavy rain forecasts in Peru lifted to much relief of the producers.
Manuel Yzaga Dibós, President of the Board of Peru's table grape association Provid cautioned that during the 2023-24 season there was some news about Peru that increased its production, "that was irresponsible, what really happened is that the season was shorter and two weeks earlier than last season. It may look like a week where we were increasing, but in the end we decreased 10% in total and -30% in the north of Peru."
In the meantime, the age-old preparation work in the table grape vineyards is going on, with every day a step closer to the new season. Producers also have the hope that the weather will be better so that they can have a decent season in 2024 and recover.
Like many a good table grape producer, Puga remains positive: "We have been in Agriculture for 20 years, and it has been good and bad years, definitely 2023 was a terrible one but history taught us that bad years like 2010 and 2017, which were difficult years for us too, but we grew up and here we are now, strengthened. All the rain that was forecasted are gone and the weather is becoming good for us. We are recovering, the 2024 rains forecast changed and things are improving here. We are harvesting avocados and Tahiti Limes right now, and our vineyards look vigorous towards the next prune in May 2024. It will be a challenging year but good times are coming and we are working hard to make it happen."
For more information:
Alonso Puga
Proserla
Tel: +51 979 344 611
Email: [email protected]