Living in Peru : your everyday companion

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

In the United States specifically, and thanks to the preferences of the ATPDEA access, Peruvian fruits are world acclaimed, especially in the case of conventional and organic mangos, but grapes and tangerines also have an important participation in the U.S. market and occupy a privileged place, in the ranking of providers during the year 2007.

Hence, for instance, Peru was the second country after Mexico to export grapes and mangos to the U.S.

On the other hand, it is important to mention that in the case of citric fruits, in spite of their favorable development, our country still has great potential to further develop as our products were only able to enter the market in the year 2006, after overcoming the sanitary barriers that kept us away from that market. It is possible to foresee that Peruvian lemons, tangerines and oranges will be exported shortly and are bound to have an enormous expansion. Let's remember that the lemon sales to the U.S. went from $US 37,000 in the year 2006, to $US 610,000 during 2007, orange and tangerine exports also rose in growth reaching the 1,056% and 438% respectively.

The numbers in the U.S. International Trade Commission, reveal that the U.S. imports more than 8,240 million dollars a year and the demand growth registered during the year 2007 was of 12%. On the other hand it is estimated that the annual consumption of fruits per capita in the U.S. averages the 120 kilos, and that number is expected to grow thanks to the campaign 5 fruits a day that the Agricultural Department of that country is promoting. The fundamental fruits in demand are bananas, grapes and avocados and nowadays Mexico is the basic exporter of such products. Evidently the proximity to the market, added to its preferences of access that their products have thanks to the free trade agreement they have with the United States, (NAFTA) has derived in the fact that Mexico leads the imports of most of the demanded fruits.

Therefore dear reader, the beginning of the Agreement between Peru-U.S. will place us in the same type of conditions as Mexico, Chile and many other competitors to access the tariff free markets. Nonetheless there are other factors we must work on like the quality, promotion and presentation of our products in order to be able to compete against others and expand our sales in such a promising market as the United States.



*Translated by Joceline Frank

Frankly Speaking Inc.