LAN Andes receives visit from the world's largest Dutch agri-news portal Fresh Plaza
A few weeks ago, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lima and LAN Andes received the correspondents of the news portal Fresh Plaza, who were carrying out the Peru Special on their news platform. Fresh Plaza has more than 500.000 readers around the world and is published in different languages, presenting editions according to the market of interest of its readers. The portal currently has editions in English, Dutch, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Chinese, as well as specialised pages according to regions of the world.
Visits to Chancay
During his visit to Peru, Pieter Boekhout, editor-in-chief of the news portal, together with his team, were able to see first-hand the work being carried out by Cosco Shipping Ports Chancay Peru SA, which in partnership with the Peruvian company Volcan is building the port of Chancay 75 km from Lima and Peru's main port, Callao. The new port aims to be a regional hub serving as a distribution centre between the Americas, Asia and Oceania. It will be multi-purpose in service to the general public. Its main benefit will focus on speeding up trade between Asia and Peru, reducing the crossing time by 8 to 10 days, said Alonso Guinand, commercial manager of the company. The port has an investment in its first stage of 1.3 billion dollars and will be able to receive large vessels of up to 18,000 TEU's.
Continuing with the visit to Chancay, the team went to the Torre Blanca processing plant, where together with the commercial manager, José Antonio Castro, they were able to verify the processes and facilities during the maquila of mandarin oranges destined for the European market. Torre Blanca is currently one of the leading processor in terms of providing services to third parties and has a large product portfolio in terms of the variety and volume of fruit it can process. According to what was said during the visit, some products arrive from as far away as Ica, some 500 km away, due to the company's good reputation and leadership as a service provider to the agro-export sector.
Exploring Huaral's Citrus Legacy and Agro-Export Innovations
Once the visit was over, the delegation went to the district of Huaral where we visited the processing plant Agroindustrias Huaral SAC (Agrihusac) where we were able to visit the plant and see the mandarin processing. Afterwards we went to the mandarin production fields of the company Agroindustrial GyP SAC where they have just launched their new brand of mandarins for international markets under the name ‘Nuna’ which means soul in the native Peruvian language. This small region a few kilometers north of Lima has a long tradition as a citrus growing area and due to Japanese influence has opted for the cultivation of mandarin varieties aimed mostly at the Japanese market. Diego Garibaldi, production manager, shared with us a bit of the history of Huaral and gave us his insights into the future of the citrus industry while we visited his 160 hectares of mandarin fields. Diego is a firm believer that agro-export companies should diversify their product portfolio, they have just launched 30 hectares of blueberries, and use varieties to cater for different seasons of the year. This allows them to maintain a skilled and experienced labour force in the fields and allows them to access the market at different times of the year.
Once again we were amazed with the agricultural capacity and development in Peru. Remembering that these companies are always looking for solutions in which the Netherlands has a lot of experience. If you have a solution in agriculture and related matters and you are looking to access the Peruvian market, please do not hesitate to contact us.
For more information send us an email to salv.orregodelaborda@minbuza.nl