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Peru the No. 1 blueberry exporter globally, top supplier

to USA

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Local growers are looking to diversify markets amid trade

war

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Peru, USA have a free trade agreement dating back to 2009

By Marco Aquino

PISCO, Peru, June 11 (Reuters) - In Peru's Pisco Desert,

rows of blueberry bushes towering as much as two meters high

stretch towards the horizon, finally giving way to sand dunes.

Traditional blueberries need chilly nights to bring fruit, but

genetic innovations have created varieties like Eureka Sunset

that can grow in this kind of arid landscape some 250 kilometers

(155 miles) south of Lima. For more than a decade the healthy

berries have rolled north to U.S. supermarket shelves, but there

is a rival buyer in town: China.

Growers in Peru are looking for new markets as production

rises and their best customer, the United States, is waging a

trade tariff war on partners around the world. China has

insatiable demand and has built a huge new port near Lima that

cuts shipping time across the Pacific in half.

"There will be a rebalancing of export share to different

markets," said Miguel Bentín, general manager of major producer

the Valle y Pampa farm, which began production in 2012 when the

blueberry harvest was a tenth of the size it is today.

The desert has long been a source of grapes made for Pisco

brandy, the base for Pisco Sour cocktails, but blueberry growers

have transformed the landscape by drilling wells up to 100

meters (328 feet) deep to find water for the crops and bringing

in workers to care for them.

Now, Bentin says, they are looking for new buyers. "The full

potential of the Chinese market for our products has not yet

been fully realized," Bentín told Reuters at the farm.

Valle y Pampa typically ships 60% of its blueberries to the

United States and the rest to Europe. This year, though, it is

planning its first big China shipment to mitigate the impact of

a 10% U.S. tariff on all goods from Peru.

Peru overtook Chile in 2021 as the world's largest exporter of

blueberries and the sector has been adding new markets,

according to half a dozen ministers, farming and export

officials, and government presentations seen by Reuters.

"The search for new markets in Asia, Europe and Oceania

(Australia) for agricultural exports has intensified," Peru's

Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Úrsula León said in mid-May,

explaining that U.S. tariffs could slow the deep purple fruit's

booming rise that boosted Peru's exports by some $2.3 billion

last year. Production during the 2025-2026 harvest is expected

to grow by 25% to 400,000 tons.

"If the U.S. tariff measure is maintained, there would be a drop

in shipments, especially in the agricultural, textile and mining

sectors," added León following a meeting with the Trump

administration. She named India, Indonesia and China as markets

with growth potential. Peru is negotiating to end U.S. tariffs,

which it says breach a free trade agreement.

If supplies from Peru decrease, U.S. consumers will likely see

prices rise. The Andean country is its top supplier of

blueberries ahead of Mexico and Chile.

"With a significant portion of produce being imported to the

U.S. and not easily produced domestically, tariffs may have an

impact on product availability," said Ben Wynkoop, global

industry strategist of grocery & convenience, at Blue Yonder,

which provides supply chain software to global retailers.

"Depending on the severity of the shortage, smaller

retailers with limited negotiation power may face significant

inventory shortages, particularly for blueberries," he added.

"It won't be a moderate effect, it will be quite big," said

Gabriel Amaro, head of the Peruvian Association of Agricultural

Producers' Guilds, adding farmers were lobbying the government

to find ways to soften the blow and protect the free trade deal.

"Our strategy is market diversification. We have a whole

list of products, especially to open up markets in Asia."

David Magaña, senior research analyst at Rabobank, who

specializes in the global fruit market downplayed the impact of

tariffs. For one, China produces its own berries for more months

of the year than the United States, he said.

"I don't think anybody in the industry is expecting China to

surpass the U.S. as the primary destination for Peruvian

blueberries," added Magaña.

CHINA-OWNED PORT A 'GAME CHANGER'

Peru's wider farm exports - also including grapes and

avocados - rose 22% to $12.8 billion last year, mainly to the

United States and Europe. Exports of blueberries dipped 30%

year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, reflecting a

change in harvest timing. However, even as quarterly U.S.

shipments ticked down, those to China rose, from a lower base.

Peru's new Chinese-controlled port of Chancay, meanwhile, cuts

the sea journey times to Asia in half to around 20 days, a big

plus for keeping fruit fresh. China's Guangzhou port in April

joined others by opening a direct route to Chancay.

U.S. fruit firm Fruitist, which produces most of its

blueberries in Peru and is one of the Andean country's top

exporters of the fruit, sent some 15-18 containers of

blueberries to China late last year via Chancay.

"It transforms the shipping part, the logistical part for

everyone who's in fresh fruit in Peru," said John Early,

Fruitist's director of global sales. "There is a huge

opportunity to expand that business in China."

Back in the Pisco Desert, Valle y Pampa manager Bentín

agreed, forecasting a noticeable increase to China as the

harvest begins to peak around August. "The port of Chancay,

especially with its costs and faster transit times, is a game

changer," he said.