Living in Peru : your everyday companion

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

This citric product contains calcium and potassium as well and these vitamins enable the strengthening of the bone structure as well as the correct development of the metabolism. Due to its high levels of fiber, tangerines also help prevent heart disease, constipation, colon cancer and even obesity. This explains that the global demand for tangerines is growing systematically allowing our country an interesting window of opportunity for exporting this product in its fresh state as well as a processed food.

The U.S. is, undoubtedly, an important consumer and due to the preferences of access that the Free Trade Agreement will offer our country once it starts being in effect, Peruvian tangerines exporters will count with better sales perspectives in a market that is more receptive and opened nowadays due to the lifting of sanitary restrictions from the exports in our citric products.

Actually, thanks to the effort and the high stakes invested by the Peruvian industrial community, our country exports more than $30 million dollars of tangerines annually and 33% of that bulk is directed to the United States; even though the United Kingdom, Holland and Canada are other markets that should be mentioned. Nevertheless, the majority of the Peruvian tangerine sales to the world are in their fresh state, and it would definitely be interesting for modern agro industry to explore the possibility of exporting these products with a higher added value, particularly to the U.S., where demand has expanded 91% in the last five years, and a 28% increase of the total consumption is still expected until the year 2010.

On the other hand, it is also necessary to observe that in spite of lifting a lot of the sanitary restrictions, this market establishes very demanding requests in order for the admission of these products to take place. Things like cold treatment to control flies, maximum limits of agro chemical residues, minimum characteristics in shape and form, rigid packaging that will protect the fruit, amongst many others.

Therefore, dear reader, the tangerine case paints a clear picture of the growth potential existent in this type of products where our country has an obvious comparative advantage to those who are limited to sell on a global scale because of strict sanitary restrictions. For this reason the public sector and the business community should work together to overcome limitations that exist in other markets for these and other products with the purpose of taking advantage of the agro export potential of our country and create more and better jobs for all Peruvians.



*Translated by Joceline Frank

Frankly Speaking Inc.