Peru reached an important agreement with Colombia to increase its agricultural export supply to that market, after the meeting held between the Peruvian Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Jose Hernandez, with his Colombian counterpart, Aurelio Iragorri, in Bogota.
In the meeting they agreed to the entry of five Peruvian agricultural products to Colombia, a country that has a potential of nearly 50 million consumers.
The products are Hass avocados, blueberries, grapefruit, pomegranates, and peppers.
The future entry of these products was possible thanks to the intense work that the authorities of Senasa have conducted with the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) since 2015, which will allow other fruits to access Colombia in the short and medium term.
Similarly, and as a gesture of reciprocity, after a risk analysis, Colombia will be able to export six agricultural products to Peru, which must have passed the respective plant health certificates at the point of origin, and inspections at point of entry.
"The consolidation of access of these 5 agricultural products to the market of Colombia, and the agreement that more will follow, will help our agriculture to grow, in accordance with the objectives set in the Government Plan, i.e. doubling agricultural exports by 2021 so that they amount to $10 billion dollars," said the Peruvian minister.
It should be noted that with the entry of these fruits to Colombia, export volumes will increase, as in the case of pomegranate, whose exports during 2015 exceeded 11,000 MT, according to the Progranada exporter guild, and whose main destination was the European Union.
According to forecasts, Peru will export 500 tons of pomegranates to Colombia worth approximately $900,000 dollars.
Source: andina.com.pe