Living in Peru : your everyday companion

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

Such is the case, for instance, of the pilot program named for sub-regional irrigations (PSI) commonly named Demonstrative Parcels, and its main objective is to motivate farmers to abandon rice production - which demands enormous amounts of water – and to venture into farming other alternative crops like avocados. In this manner, the program which operates the province of Ferrenafe in Lambayeque has invested US$6,000 per hectare of land in the irrigation system installations and in its handling, which in turn will allow farmers to better their revenues in due of the expected harvest of the year 2010.

The avocado is a product that has revealed an immense dynamism in recent years, in spite that many important markets like the U.S., Mexico, Japan are not allowed due to sanitary restrictions. The sales of this product expanded by 150% between the years 2004 and 2007, and last year they presented a 21% growth. And the most popular destination of Peruvian avocado is Holland, Spain and England who received together 85.42% of the total of foreign sales in 2007.

It is important to consider that the lifting of restrictions in the sanitary measures for exports of Peruvian avocados to the United States is expected to happen during the year 2009 – and this will allow Peru to increase its sales to that market, even more so with the APC advantages at our disposal.

We should not forget that climate characteristics along the Peruvian coast offer excellent conditions for avocado production during the whole year, to this we can add the modernized irrigation systems and preferential access that Peru has with the agreements all this, will enable them to increase the marketing of this green product. Only for the 2008 Export Sierra Program, it is expected that avocado exports should exceed the U.S.$60 million, from which U.S.$7.5 will correspond to Sierra exports, specifically from the area of Junin, Ancash, Moquegua and Ayacucho.

Therefore, dear reader, these examples can help us understand how, to work in the modernization of traditional crops through less profitable substitution and stimulating those, with a high demand in a global dynamic market, is absolutely possible. The avocado is solely one of hundreds of promising crops that can be promoted with the objective of stimulating our exports and our opportunities of development in the different regions of our country. Let us bet on our competitive advantages and not cling to traditional farming with low productivity.



*Translated by Joceline Frank

Frankly Speaking Inc.