Peru’s fresh produce industry has recorded mixed results for the first half of this year with gains for mangoes and bananas and a fall in table grape exports.
During the six-month period, sendings of mangoes grew by 57.5 per cent in value to US$141.4m, said Peruvian consultancy Maximixe and reported Alertaeconomica.com.
The Netherlands was the largest buyer with 38.4 per cent of the total export volume, followed by the US (36.7 per cent), the UK (5.4 per cent), Canada (4.7 per cent) and Spain (4.1 per cent).
In the banana trade, exports of bananas and their derivatives increased by 12 per cent to US$34.3m during the first half, compared with US$30.7m in the year-earlier period.
Data from the Peruvian Exporters Association (Adex) indicates that sendings reaching 21 European markets, mainly the Netherlands which accounted for 56 per cent of total shipments.
The European market as a whole absorbed US$19.1m-worth of Peruvian bananas and their derivates during the first half of the year, Adex said, a rise of 31 per cent against the first half of 2010.
The second-largest market for the fruit was the US (although sales fell by 7 per cent to US$7.2m), followed by Japan (with US$3.1m or a 33 per cent growth), Belgium (US$1.8m), Germany, Canada, Korea and Ireland, among others.
Meanwhile, exports of fresh table grapes from Lambayeque in Peru fell by 82 per cent to just 445 tonnes during the January to June period, according to figures from Arex Lambayeque and reported by Agronegocios Peru.
The decline was due to sendings only reaching the US and Costa Rica (worth some US$265,000), compared with the same period last year when shipments reached a number of countries including Ecuador, US, Russia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Taiwan.
