Tambo Sur LLC in Pompano Beach, FL, opened its doors seven years ago as a Peruvian asparagus grower-importer. It has expanded beyond that one commodity, though asparagus is still one of its top items.

It has asparagus year-round from Peru, asparagus from Mexico and organic asparagus from Argentina. “Now we do other items but what ties them together is that they all come mostly from Peru,” said Fabian Zarate, president.

Seven years ago, Zarate was involved in the startup business with Peruvian grower Adolfo Carozzo. Zarate said in that first year the company only sourced Carozzo’s asparagus but since then the Tambo Sur has expanded to include other growers, which has led to representation of other crops.

Other top items for Tambo Sur are grapes, citrus, blueberries, limes, peas, stone fruit, and this year the new item is organic ginger from Peru.

Zarate said several years ago the grape imports started slowly with just six containers. “Nobody knew that Peru even grew grapes. Today we are competing with Chile.” He also said the grape season from Peru will start in October, sooner than other years.

In fact, he said Peru typically has about a six- to eight-week window in the fall before Chile starts its grape deal. While the firm has been Peru-centric since it was established, it planted some asparagus acreage in Mexico about seven months ago. “We should have our first Mexican asparagus in 11 months (June 2014).”

Asparagus from South America is still its top volume commodity. Tambo Sur only imports the green variety and concentrates on the 11-pound carton with some sales of the 28 pounder. “Everything we sell comes in by air freight,” Zarate said. “We stopped doing it by boat about three years ago when they changed the arrival schedule and we lost a couple more days.” He said the current arrival schedule has the ships hitting port when weekend breaks come into play. Consequently shelf life is eroded even more than the 11-days that was originally the case.

Zarate expected strong pricing to be an issue all year. In late July he said the f.o.b Miami was in the $32-$34 range, which means an f.o.b. price in Peru of $24 to $26. “I don’t think we are going to see an f.o.b. Peru less than $17 this year, which means about $24 in Miami. That will create a different ad price. None of the growers down there are interested in a low program price. They all want the spot market price.”

He indicated that the drop in volume in Asparagus plus increased demand worldwide warrants the higher price.