Peru, the world's top blueberry exporter, moves to build a strawberry sector

Peru, the world's largest exporter of fresh blueberries, is preparing to build a second berry sector around strawberries, with industry representatives saying the crop could become one of the country's flagship products within five years. The Polish horticultural outlet sadyogrody.pl reported the plans, citing Fructidor.com and Peru's Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI).

Blueberries set the benchmark

Peru exported just 10,200 tonnes of blueberries in 2015. By 2019 it had passed Chile to become the world's leading exporter of the fruit, and it has held that position since.

MIDAGRI data show Peru shipped 373,500 tonnes of fresh blueberries in 2025 for $2.457 billion, with volume up 14.6% on 2024. That implies an average of roughly $6,580 per tonne, or about $6.58 per kilogram.

Output was larger still. The national statistics institute INEI recorded about 404,000 tonnes of blueberries in 2025, 13.86% more than a year earlier, meaning more than 90% of the crop left the country. Production is concentrated in La Libertad, Lambayeque and Ica.

Blueberries are now the most valuable single line in Peruvian agricultural exports, accounting for 16.4% of the FOB value of agro-export products in 2025. That trajectory, from marginal volumes to global leadership in just over a decade, is the reference point the strawberry plan is being measured against.

Strawberries named as the next target

The five-year ambition was set out at the First International Strawberry Congress - Peru 2026, held on 4 September 2026 at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in Lima. MIDAGRI had formally declared the event to be of interest to the agricultural development and irrigation sector in June 2026.

The programme goes beyond planting more hectares. Sector representatives framed the task as building a more competitive strawberry production chain capable of serving the domestic market and export buyers at the same time.

What the sector says it has to fix

Representatives at the congress identified several priorities:

• access to new production technology;
• suitable genetic material and varieties;
• technical advisory services for growers;
• improvements in fruit quality and productivity.

These are the same inputs that underpinned the blueberry build-out, where licensed varieties and concentrated coastal production allowed volumes to scale within a decade.

First money on the ground

Financing so far is modest. According to AGROIDEAS, seven business plans for strawberry production have been registered, worth more than 2.2 million Peruvian soles. The projects are expected to benefit more than 160 producer families directly in the regions of Cajamarca, Apurimac, Cusco and Moquegua, an average of under 14,000 soles per family.

The support covers financing, technical assistance, and the equipment and technology needed to raise output. An AGROIDEAS representative said some farms had tripled strawberry production after implementing their business plans.

The four regions named are different from La Libertad, Lambayeque and Ica, where blueberry production is concentrated. No planted area, volume or export targets for the strawberry sector were published alongside the five-year ambition, and the industry remains at the stage of assembling a production chain rather than scaling shipments.