One of the small pleasures of our extended stay in Reno was that blueberries never stopped being available in grocery stores.
How strange was that? Don't blueberries have a season, a short one in late spring, and then disappear from the shelves or become prohibitively expensive?
Not anymore. Adam Tooze shared a thread which explains:
One guy’s experiment drove Peru to become the world’s #1 blueberry exporter and #2 overall producer.
Carlos Gereda was the spark that lit Peru's blueberry boom of the past decade. He asked a simple question: "can blueberries grow in Peru?" In 2006, he brought 14 varieties from Chile to see which ones adapted well to the Peruvian climate.
He narrowed it down to four and, in 2009, founded Inka's Berries. The company's service consisted of assisting the development of plantations that adhered to the growing standards Carlos had conceived. The blueberry revolution ensued. ... production multiplied by more than 6,000x in ten years. Blueberries are now the country's 2nd most significant export, just behind grapes.
... Peru's climate allows for year-round production, giving the country a competitive edge over seasonal agriculture. The productivity of Peruvian land is 13 tons per hectare. The world's top player, the USA, produces 8 tons per hectare. Given the massive competitive edge, we believe it's only a matter of time before Peru becomes the blueberry capital of the world.
And so we could buy "out of season," reasonably-priced blueberries into November. What a world we are making!
1 comment:
thanks for the information. I have been wondering about the blueberries that have come from Peru. Puts a whole different angle on the concept of Out of Season. Maybe should change to Out of Location.
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