Gourmet Trading Co. in Los Angeles, founded in 1982 as an importer and distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables, specializes in two products — asparagus and blueberries — which it supplies year-round by sourcing both domestically and internationally.

In the berry category, “we do blueberries out of Chile, Peru, Argentina and Uruguay” in addition to domestic production and some production out of Canada, said Chloé Varennes, marketing manager.

“We are going to start off our South American blueberry season with Argentina,” she said Sept. 4. “The season will probably start mid-September and will go all the way to about mid- to late December. We will have lots of Argentinean fruit for PMA Fresh Summit [in mid-October]. That is probably when the peak will hit as well, and a little before and after.”

The company expected to start receiving blueberries from Chile in November. “That will go probably till March or April of 2015,” Varennes said. “The majority of our South American volume is out of Chile.”

In addition, “we will have fruit from Uruguay from October to December,” she said.

The company has been importing blueberries from South America for five or more years, starting in Argentina and then Chile, Varennes said.

Peru is a new production region for Gourmet Trading. “We were the first to actually commercially import Peruvian blueberries into the United States,” beginning in 2013, and “that region is developing very quickly,” she said. “It is only our second season out of Peru.” Gourmet Trading is working with one grower-partner in Peru who will have blueberries available during two different seasons: the first started in August and will continue through October; the second will be from March through April. “That will fill out some of those domestic berry gaps, and when Chile starts to fade out, Peru will come in. It is not a lot of volume right now, but the region is growing rapidly.”

In 2013, Peru’s production grew by 260 percent over the prior year, and that year, Gourmet Trading was “the second-largest supplier of Peruvian blueberries,” she said.

Gourmet Trading has been handling green asparagus out of Peru for over two decades. “That is actually where we started importing out of South America,” Varennes said. Since “we were already in that region, it just makes sense for us to do blueberries out of that region.” Asparagus fields “are getting older, and growers are looking to turn them over to something else. We are giving them the option of blueberries, but there are a lot of the products coming out of Peru. Avocados and grapes are probably the most popular things being planted right now.”

With regard to the coming season, “we do have some concerns” about the weather in “the whole South American region,” Varennes said. “It might be a little bit warmer this year than it typically is because we might be looking at an El Niño this year. That is going to cause the temperatures to rise and will also possibly bring rain” that could affect any of those growing regions. There is “no way to predict,” she said.

However, “we are expecting to have an increase in volume this year out of Peru, Argentina and Chile,” she said. “We are looking at having a high percentage of clean fruit out of Chile.”

Last year, a moth infestation in the middle regions of Chile, where about 70 percent of the industry volume originates, necessitated fumigation on arrival for much of the imported volume, Varennes said. Because Gourmet Trading expects a higher percentage of clean fruit than the industry overall, “we are looking forward to less fumigation and less issues on arrival.”

The company’s blueberries from all producing regions are packed under the “Gourmet Trading Company” label, she said.

Domestically, Gourmet Trading has its own blueberry farms in California and Oregon. In Canada, the company grows blueberries in British Columbia. That deal just finished in August. “We are also starting to expand into other regions such as the Southeast and Michigan,” she said.

In addition to conventionally grown blueberries, Gourmet Trading also offers organic blueberries out of Chile. “We are increasing our organic fruit this season,” both regular USDA certification and a little volume with Biodynamics certification, which is “even higher quality than USDA organic blueberries,” Varennes said. “We will try that out this season and see how it goes.”

Last year’s organic program was just a trial for the company. “This year we are going to have a lot more volume,” she said.

Currently the company does not have organic production domestically but is working toward organic certification.