Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Food & Pisco

Food < Features | Restaurants in Peru | Share a Recipe| Glossary | Recipes | Suggest a Restaurant | Top 20 Restaurants

Pisco / Feature Articles

(Andina) The certification of Pisco should be considered as a strategy to guarantee the quality of the exports of the Peruvian flagship product, since it would mean that the drink would meet certain necessary requirements for it to be marketed in world markets, said the Association of Exporters (Adex) today Thursday.

To date, Chile produces and exports a spirit with the name of Pisco, in addition to the producers in Ecuador and Argentina who also have spirits with the same denomination, which confuses consumers abroad.

For this reason, the president of Adex’s Committee on Pisco, Miguel Pobrete, requested that the state, through the chancellery, intensify its role as promoter of this national brand at international events. “With this certification, our flagship drink would have its characteristics of origin guaranteed, and thus its margin of adulteration would be reduced”, said Pobrete.

Therefore, he noted that it is vital to assure the support of this initiative from PROMPERU (Comision de Promocion del Peru para la Exportacion y el Turismo), from the ministries of Foreign trade and Tourism (MINCETUR), Production and Customs.

He reported that between January and November of last year, Pisco exports grew by 67% compared to the same period in 2006. Sales were reported at $891,618 US, which can be explained by the new technology available to the producers, as well as better production levels.

During this period, most of the exports went to the US with a total of $322,298 US, comprising 36% of total exports. He explained that “The second destination was Chile with exports totaling $180,832 US, followed by Spain with $80,331US, Colombia with $53,764us and Mexico with $51,071 US”.

Other countries were Canada, Germany, Argentina, France, Costa Rica, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland and Panama for a total of 33 countries receiving this Peruvian drink. Among the markets registering the highest increases are Mexico (1,602%), Chile (1,055%), Canada (1,321%), Argentina (730%), Germany (555%) and France (289%).

The main companies exporting Pisco were Alpea, Viñas Tacama, Santiago Queirolo, Viña Ocucaje, Agroindustrias Bodega Santo Tomas, Puro Peru and Vitivinicola de la Manacha.