The Association of Exporters (ADEX) stated that Peruvian agricultural exports in the first quarter had amounted to 1.098 billion dollars, i.e. 1% more than in the same period of 2014.
According to the exporter Guild, these results are due to the important investments made in different products, even though there has been a slight slowdown, which could certainly be negative as it could jeopardize future investments and thus the growth in the coming years.
Non-traditional exports
According to data from the Adex Data Trade Business Intelligence System, non-traditional agricultural exports recorded revenues of $1.052 billion dollars in the first quarter, which represents a 5.4% increase due to the increased demand for fruits (13, 9%) and vegetables (11.4%).
Meanwhile, shipments of traditional agricultural products totalled $45.2 million dollars, i.e. a 49.3% contraction due to lower sales of coffee.
According to Adex, the export basket consisted mainly of grapes, mangoes, asparagus, food for livestock, bananas, quinoa, coffee, cocoa beans, evaporated milk, artichokes, avocados, paprika, piquillo peppers, cookies, prepared olives, and passion fruit juice, among others.
The most demanded products
The management of Adex Agro stressed that the grapes were the main agricultural export product in the first quarter, and that there had been a 2.1% increase of grape sales even though last year the harvest had started earlier because of the effects of El Niño that has a toll on this year's 2015 production volume. This year, he said, projections are the grapes will continue to be within the top 3 products in this category.
The second most demanded product was the mango, which continued to increase (26.9%) thanks to the improvement of international prices. Meanwhile, shipments of asparagus recovered because Mexico had a production that was lower than expected.
Data
The main market for agricultural exports in the first quarter was the United States ($288.7 million dollars), which increased its purchases by 6.7% and accounted for 26.3% of total shipments.
This destination bought mangoes, asparagus, grapes, bananas, quinoa, artichokes, canned vegetables, paprika, coffee, cranberries, and other products.
The second main destination was the Netherlands ($ 163.9 million), which increased their orders by 5.3% and represented 14.9% of the total, followed by China, Hong Kong, Ecuador, Spain, the UK and Germany.
Source: El Peruano