The coastal storm El Niño has generated warm weather in Peru, so the vines are being pruned, and the first table grapes of the 2023-2024 Peruvian campaign should start in September, when the campaign normally starts in October, Fernando Cillóniz Benavides, president of Inform@cción, told Agraria.

Cillóniz also indicated that in the 2023-2024 campaign there will be more early grapes compared to the previous campaign (2022-2023).

He said the presence of Cyclone Yaku in March caused a lot of rainfall. The rainwater generated the proliferation of fungi in the vine plants on the northern Peruvian coast, which would cause a lower production of said fruit in that area of the country.

A different situation can be seen in the Ica region, where the heat caused the bud to improve and advances the vegetative development of the fruit, so earlier grapes and higher production are also expected.

As Ica is the main producing region of table grapes in Peru and a higher production is projected, it is expected that the production (and export) of table grapes by Peru in the 2023-2024 campaign will be higher than the previous campaign.

“It seems that in Piura and in the North there will be less table grapes, but whatever happens (despite the presence of the global storm El Niño, popular revolts and others) there is no way to reverse this growth,” he said.

Cillóniz said that from January to mid-July of this year, table grape exports from Peru grew in volume 16 percent (close to 45,000 more tons) compared to the same period in 2022.

Source: producebluebook.com