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Peru expects to enter 10 new agro-export markets this year

Published: 21 Feb. 2025, 11:53

A container is lifted by a crane backdropped by the construction of the Chinese-funded port, in Chancay, Peru, on Oct. 29, 2024. [AP/YONHAP]

Peru expects to enter some 10 new markets for its agricultural exports this year, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Israel, industry and government sources said on Thursday as the South American country posts strong shipments.

Peru added some 21 new destinations for its agricultural products last year, helping boost the value of its agro-exports by some 22 percent to $12.8 billion, according to government data.

"The goal for this year is to enter at least 10 new markets, including exporting fresh avocados to the Philippines and table grapes to Israel, which will consolidate our presence in Asia and the Middle East," the head of Peru's ADEX exporters' association, Julio Perez, said in a press conference.

While the United States and Europe are currently Peru's main markets for agricultural supplies, Perez said Peru expects to grow its Asian markets in the coming years thanks to the new Pacific mega-port of Chancay, the first phase of which was inaugurated late last year. Chancay is helping to drastically reduce shipping times across the Pacific Ocean.

The Andean nation, whose economy has traditionally been centered on mining, is also looking to export more blueberries, officials said, as global demand soars.

Peru has been the world's largest blueberry exporter since the turn of the decade and foreign shipments of the small fruit jumped a further 36 percent to $2.3 billion last year, with the United States buying more than half of the country's exports.

Peru now hopes to add Indonesia — the world's fourth most populous country with over 280 million inhabitants — to its list of buyers.

Peru reached a free-trade pact with Indonesia late last year.

The South American country currently has 21 such trade agreements, including with the United States and China, the world's two largest economies. It also has sanitary agreements enabling trade with some 240 nations.

Peru's main agro-exporters are set to meet buyers in Lima on May 24 in a forum aimed at boosting trade.

REUTERS