Colombia is seeking to export close to 1,000 tons of cape gooseberries to the United States this year surpassing the 700 tons it sent to that market during 2018, official sources reported.

The objective was set by the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) after a meeting with the technical committee of that fruit, also formed by the National Association of Foreign Trade (Analdex) and the Fruit and Vegetable Association of Colombia (Asohofrucol), which defined the work plan to take advantage of that market.

"This meeting allowed us to listen to all parts of the cape gooseberry productive chain to make decisions that lead us to achieve the goal of exporting at least 1,000 tons to the US market by 2019," said the general manager of ICA, Deyanira Barrero Leon.

Barrero also said that in the last three years Colombia went from exporting 80 to 700 tons of this fruit to the United States, which allowed producers and exporters to achieve an income of nearly 3.5 million dollars.

During the meeting the committee planned, together with producers and exporters, strategies for the improvement of cape gooseberry crops and phytosanitary conditions, as well as the opening of other countries.

The ICA has 23 farms with 57.1 hectares for the production of cape gooseberry and five packing plants in the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyaca.

The representative of Analdex, Carlos Lozano, said the ICA was the main partner for the cape gooseberry to export to the United States and highlighted the guilds intention to reach new countries in America and Europe.

Colombia has exported this fruit to 21 countries, including Malaysia, Ukraine, Guatemala, England, and the United Arab Emirates.