Peru has to double food exports within five years

The president of the Association of Exporters (ADEX), Eduardo Amorrortu, stated that Peru only had a…

The president of the Association of Exporters (ADEX), Eduardo Amorrortu, stated that Peru only had a 0.2% share in the world's food consumption. Chile surpasses Peru with twice the amount (0.4%) and Mexico has 1.6%, thus Peru's goal should be to double this amount in the next five years.

Regarding the ups and downs of international economies, he said: "People might stop consuming metals, minerals, metallurgy, textiles or other products, but there is no way they'll stop buying food. The five-year goal is to double our share in the world market because the market is there and Peru has the potential to grow with new products and foods such as grapes, avocados and others."

He added that a week ago the US market had been opened for capsicum products, such as limo peppers and piquillo peppers, which can be grown in greenhouses.

Piura, privileged

Eduardo Routledge said Piura was a privileged agricultural region and that the sky was the limit because they were currently planning to open the market for pomegranate and other products.

He stressed that agriculture was the most outstanding factor in Piura. As an example, he pointed out that there were no grape exports from that region ten years ago and grapes are now one of the new products being exported from the region. He also highlighted the banana production in the Chira Valley and, even though its a little more complicated, the mango production.

He said ADEX worked close with authorities from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) and PromPeru, and recommended working with municipal and regional governments to gain access to new markets worldwide.

Amorrortu also noted that currency devaluations were not bad because they allowed decreasing the products' prices when exporting them.