During PMA Fruittrade, Lucía Corbetto Bellido, of Sun Belle Berries, from Chile, made a presentation addressing the recent agreement of the production of blueberries in Peru. Lucía explained how this expansion is a bold move, but necessary. Expanding to Peru entails breaking paradigms, she explained, and the benefits are many.

"Complementarity is powerful," said Lucía, "and the reality is that it is necessary if a company wants to internationalise." SunBelle studied the situation very carefully before the agreement with Cerro Prieto, blueberry producer which is participating in SunBelle's operation in Peru.
"Blueberries require much labour," stated Lucía. "We were careful because we know about twenty workers are needed to harvest one hectare of blueberries." Because of this, they selected a region of Peru where there are enough workers. The weather is another important factor, and therefore the variety Biloxi was chosen for its ability to  adapt to the country.

"The cost of labour in Peru is about half of that in Chile," explained Lucía. "When we evaluated the possibility of entering Peru, the synergies were very powerful." Now there are 45 new hectares in Peru and more will be planted in December.

"This is the first stage of our future growth," pointed out Lucía. "We chose a partner that we knew would complement us well, and now the power of the project is a reality."

11/20/2015

Photo: Fresh Plaza

Source: Fresh Plaza