With the addition of several new growers, as well as larger contracts with existing growers, Tambo Sur LLC of Pompano Beach, FL, expects to increase its Peruvian asparagus imports by a healthy percentage this year.

“We usually do between 600,000 and 700,000 [cartons],” said Fabian Zarate, who serves as the firm’s sales manager. “This year I think we will do 800,000.”

He said the increase represents more order from their customers for the standard pack, in addition to the special packaging Tambo Sur does for some of its customers. “We have a few retailers who like this one-pound bag that we are doing.”

He said it is a stand-up type bag that makes a very nice presentation at retail. Tambo Sur packages the product after it arrives in Miami.

Toward the end of July, Zarate told The Produce News that the normal decrease in supplies accompanying Peru’s winter period (South America’s winter falls during North America’s summer) was underway and he didn’t expect a big increase in volume until September.

“I don’t think this will be a typical August,” he said. “I don’t believe we will see the volume that August usually brings.”

Still Zarate predicted that the market will start to fall in August as volume will be greater than it is now. On July 21, he said the f.o.b. Miami market on Peruvian asparagus was in the low to mid-$30s on a five-kilo carton. “That [market price] should be in the $20s in August.”

Zarate said reports from Peruvian growers indicating less supplies than usual have had the effect of decreasing movement by discouraging promotional pricing and the typical bump in sales those ads bring. “In years past, we have seen more volume [leading up to August] and growers giving some program pricing. Right now growers are reluctant to give program pricing for August.”

While that means they expect that there will be less volume, it also means less volume will be sold as retail sales of Peruvian asparagus are very price-sensitive. A good promotion price can increase sales exponentially.

Tambo Sur was launched eight years ago as a firm specializing in selling Peruvian asparagus in the United States, and since then it has increased its offerings of Peruvian fresh produce to the States.

The product list first grew to include grapes, then citrus and this year Tambo Sur began bringing in Peruvian avocados. Zarate said the experience with those avocados has not been great this year because some importers jumped the gun and brought in some avocados that were immature.

“They thought they could catch a window [of high prices] and so they brought some in too early that didn’t have a high enough oil content,” he said. “They ended up cutting black” and that hurt the marketing prospects for Tambo Sur and other importers.

But Zarate was looking for the late-summer arrival of W. Murcotts and Honey Murcotts from Peru. This citrus variety, which is similar to a clementine, has replaced the Minneola for many Peruvian growers.

While Tambo Sur is in a business partnership with one Peruvian grower, it has increased its volume by reaching out to other growers since its inception. Zarate said the firm now represents six different Peruvian growers in the United States.

Helping on the sales desk this year is a veteran of the Peruvian deal, Bertin Gomez, who has worked for several other importers over the years.