Living in Peru : your everyday companion

article courtesy of "Contact"
review by AmCham Peru

In 2008, Peru exported US$1,912,690 million in the agro-industrial sector, an amount 23.3% higher than in 2007, in which this figure came to US$1,550,695 million. It should be noted that the United States is the main destination of our agro-industrial exports, accounting for 30.7% of the total (US$587,021 million); far below as a destination is Spain, with 12.2% of the total (US$233,608 million). In third place are the Netherlands with 10.2% (US$195,293 million). These countries account for 53.1% of the total, which is to say that three countries account for over half of our agro-industrial exports (see figure).

An important detail, which gives us a good start with this FTA, is that 78% of total exports in the agro-industrial sector are non-traditional exports, and traditional agricultural products represent only 22%. This latter percentage of traditional agriculture has been falling gradually over the years. This shows that, although we still lack a highly diversified group of products to offer, we are using good strategies for entering the U.S. market with specialized products and targeting niche markets.

To go into detail and analyze our products exported to the U.S. market, we see that they are mainly concentrated in asparagus, artichokes, onions, other vegetables, paprika, mangoes and grapes. These products account for 65.8% of the total sent to the United States (see table). Also, the top 20 products exported to that country account for 82.4% of the total. This demonstrates the enormous road ahead, and all that can be used to expand our exports. We have many high quality products that are not yet known in that market, as well as others on the waiting list to overcome sanitation barriers. Having the FTA signed is definitely a key factor in this process, driving us toward being a potential trading partner of the United States, and thus to being much more competitive than competing countries that are without it.

Source: Adex DataTrade, Elaboration: AmCham Peru

Peruvian Exports to the United States (by product)

Sector: Agro - Industry

Year 2008

Source: Adex Data Trade, Elaboration: AmCham Peru

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