Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Info provided by the
American Chamber of Commerce of Peru (AmCham Peru)

This is the case of artichokes. A product basically harvested in the coast and higlands of Peru, artichokes have many production advantages and they have been presenting a considerable global expansion in their sales. Mostly because of the generous climate our country has, the possibilities per hectare are far superior than in other parts of the world, added to this the increasing investments in technology in crop modernization, results in a highly competitive and high quality product of international proportions.

During the years 2003 and 2007, we observed an increase of more than 900% in sales of this particular product, the same ones that are concentrated in fewer markets like: U.S., Spain, France and Germany. Today Peruvian artichokes are exported fresh, frozen or canned. Even if the sales in such products show a favorable evolution, canned artichokes are responsible of the huge increase in sales particularly in the last year, when they grew 21%.

It is also important to mention, that artichokes have been part of the fundamental ranking in exported products by Peru, and it's the fourth agro industrial product, after asparagus fresh and canned, and evaporated milk. This responds undoubtedly, to the increasing international demand, from U.S. and Europe in particular, where you can observe a bigger interest towards health and balanced nutrition. Due to the fact that artichokes have an abundance of nutritional and medicinal benefits, it is actually not surprising that its consumption is growing more and more in the basic markets everyday.

In spite of the dynamic demand, we can't ignore the effort of the local producers who are trying to make their crops more productive and certainly of a better quality, which show the results of the success we are observing today.

This way, dear reader, this example as many others mentioned before, not only should fill us with pride but stimulate the search for business opportunities, as we can find hundreds of products with production advantages which have not yet been exploited to its full potential. Hence we should be taking advantage of the vast amounts of opportunities existent nowadays.


*Translated by Joceline Frank

Frankly Speaking Inc.