Following the Water Uphill? The Spread of Blueberry Cultivation to the Mountains of Áncash, Peru = ¿Siguiendo el agua cuesta arriba? La expansión del cultivo del arándano en la sierra de Áncash, Perú

Abstract

Following the Water Uphill?The Spread of Blueberry Cultivation to the Mountains of Áncash, Peru Martha G. Bell, Karl S. Zimmerer, and Odolin Saturnino Rodríguez Tinoco Landscape observers in peru's Án-cash region have been concerned for over a decade about the impact of climate change on the shrinking glaciers of the Cordillera Blanca and the Santa River watershed (Bury et al., 2013). However, the Santa River valley, which is known locally as Callejón de Huaylas and is one of Peru's most important inter-Andean valleys, has been experiencing a second dramatic landscape change that has gone mostly unnoticed by outsiders. It has rapidly become covered by huge swathes of white plastic used in the construction of high tunnels for blueberry production (Figure 1).1 Primarily for export, this production is transforming resource use as well as valley aesthetics, with impacts for diverse sectors of society in Áncash. Furthermore, it suggests potential new trends in global agro-exports. Commercial blueberry production in Peru began in 2007 and has expanded rapidly through a national campaign since 2012: from 50 hectares (ha) cultivated in 2012 to more than 18,000 ha in 2022 (Cordano, 2016; León Carrasco, 2023). [End Page 156] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Blueberries cultivated in high tunnels near Caraz, Áncash, Peru (Photograph by Marcia Castromonte, February 17, 2023). Blueberries are currently the agro-export crop that generates the highest sales. In 2022, sales totaled US$ 1,435 million, approximately 14 percent of Peru's total agro-export sales (Agraria.pe, 2023). Peru has also become the world's leading exporter of the fruit (freshfruitportal.com, 2023), producing more than 276,000 metric tons in 2022 (Agraria.pe, 2023). This has corresponded to the larger expansion of "non-traditional agricultural exports" (NTAEs) across Latin America, which, beginning in the 1990s, saw production booms of grapes, avocados, mangos, asparagus, and other crops along Peru's desert coast. This growth has depended on large-scale agribusiness and government investment in irrigation projects and "technified" agriculture as well as inexpensive labor and new trade and legal arrangements (Williams & Murray, 2019; Lombana, 2020; Crespi, 2022). Peru's blueberry boom depends on distinctive varietal management and new geographic strategies for production. In 2023, the most prevalent blueberry varieties included Emerald and Biloxi, which are extra-large, firm, sweet, crunchy varieties that can survive cold storage and shipping (Ilyas, 2023). These are so-called zero or low chill varieties, which require reduced hours at cool temperatures (below 7 oC) compared to other varieties, and are thus suitable for Peru's warmer temperatures (especially on the coast but also in the Callejón de Huaylas). In addition to these [End Page 157] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. High tunnels for blueberry growing in the valley bottom of Callejón de Huaylas, Áncash, Peru (Fundo San Lauro and Fundo Santa Catalina, Grupo Athos) (Google Earth, August 8, 2021). properties, which are common to agro-exports, blueberry expansion has required the transformation of new geographic spaces by subsuming previously "underutilized" lands into the agro-export model. While in previous agro-export growth these spaces have typically been located on Peru's desert coast, now it is higher altitude zones, and specifically the inter-Andean valleys of Áncash, La Libertad, Cajamarca, and Piura—characterized by more abundant surface water, gentle rainfall, absence of frosts, and available land and labor—that are targeted for blueberry production (Cordano, 2016; Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria del Perú, 2019). We focus our description on all these production factors, with special attention to the role of water availability in the upslope spaces. The cultivation of blueberries in inter-Andean valleys has mainly occurred near the city of Caraz, which is located in the relatively wide, flat-bottomed Santa River valley (Callejón de Huaylas). The Santa River is fed by glacier meltwater flowing down from the Cordillera Blanca, which contains some of the most important tropical glaciers in the world. During the twentieth century, agriculturalists in the Caraz area, including indigenous peasant communities (Comunidades Campesinas) as well as smallholders and medium-size farms, used irrigation to grow products for national...