Piura, Peru August 6, 2009

Thu, Aug 06, 2009 at 11:30:45 AM

We visited Camposol S.A. the biggest mango producer in Peru. I was struck by their massive scale and the extent of the agriculture on the lower and middle slopes and dry arenales. CAMPOSOL is engaged in the cultivation of land and the raising, harvesting, processing and commercializing of agricultural products and fruit including mangos, avocados, asparagus, sweet peppers, artichokes, which are exported fresh, canned or frozen mainly to Europe and the USA. The company currently owns 15,500 hectares in Piura, where 400 hectares are planted with mango. Their main variety is ‘Kent’.

CAMPOSOL encompasses a totally integrated business from the production of raw material in the fields to processing in the industrial plant and subsequent commercialization in Europe and the USA. Their pruning methods are excellent. They prune manually keeping the trees 2 meters high. Due to the salinity in the region, ‘Haden' is the rootstock they use. I noticed incompatibility in their trees.

Organic mango production was one of the discussion topics during the conference, so I wanted to visit one of the orchards. There is a total area of 3,000 ha of organic mangos that are certified. After installation, maintenance of 1 ha of mango costs on average US $400 for an organic orchard, compared with US $1, 015 for a conventional orchard. Organic mango yields are around 25 tons/ha. For fresh conventional mangos, variable production and harvesting cost were 7 soles/box, while they fetched an average price in the city of 9 soles/box resulting in a considerably higher profit margin.

My journal in Peru is finished and I bring back good memories from the land of the ‘Edward’ mango and their people. For me Peru’s potential is clear in terms of mangos, the key is to enter to the international market with a high quality standard.

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