A once in your lifetime pandemic that catapulted global industries in a twisting rollercoaster would have been enough of a challenge to tackle in one season. However, the 2020/2021 grape season in Peru had another plan. Issues stacked one behind each other to create the most unique and challenging season Vanguard International has ever experienced. Or as President of Vanguard Direct, Dirk Winkelmann describes, “A year like this undresses your weaknesses – which can be a good thing.“
In this 3-part series we sit down with Dirk and the team at Vanguard Peru to review the outlier season that was, a look to where we are currently, and a preview to how these learnings will shape the upcoming 2021/2022 season.
The first domino that shook the 2020 Peru season were the labour strikes that peaked just before the Christmas holidays. This interruption caused around a 10 day delay during the critical harvest schedule. As labour returned when the calendar flipped to 2021, the ever changing COVID-19 pandemic phases caused understandable hesitation in the work force and led to inconsistent teams. A continually changing staff required regular re-training sessions to assure quality consistency of products. The unsteady labour carousel led to additional packing delays, and the next domino – a more competitive day-to-day labour environment with quickly escalating costs.
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