Peru is the rising star of Latin American fruit exports, according to one of its leading protagonists.
José Chlimper, of top asparagus exporter Agrokasa, told Southern Hemisphere Congress delegates that the “country’s desire to export was awakened” in the mid 1990s. Fresh produce is playing a major role in an industry that last year broke through the $16 billion export mark.
Chlimper illustrated the progress with a series of charts that showed each product starting from a base of virtually zero in 1998 and increasing its international presence significantly. Peruvian asparagus, which has altered the European gras market irrevocably, represents a third of the country’s total fresh produce export value, but huge gains have also been made in mangoes, avocados and citrus categories.
The country has 68,200 hectares of horticultural land planted, and free trade agreements with the US and EU should push volumes further skywards in the next 12 months.
