Lima airport currently lacks the required facilities to cope with new regulations due to take effect in August, which will require all airfreight exports to the US to be scanned before departure.
According to a press release from the Peruvian Exporters Association (Adex), Lima’s Jorge Chávez international airport does not have the capacity to scan the 35m tonnes of cargo which pass through the hub each year.
Adex chairman José Luis Silva Martinot has urged the Peruvian customs agency Sunat to implement as soon as possible an adequate scanning system which can cope with the new requirements, and thereby avoid damaging the country’s airfreight exports and causing millions of dollars in losses for the export sector.
Airfreight accounts for between 30 per cent and 35 per cent of Peru’s total annual exports, including fresh fruits and vegetables, jewellery and clothing.
The new US ruling also applies to sea ports, meaning Peru will have to install six high-tech scanners – give at the Port of Callao in Lima and one at the Port of Paita in the north-west of the country.
