In 2023, Peru shipped 47 agro-industrial products to China for 369 million dollars, among which blueberries, grapes and avocados stood out. “It is a huge market that offers us great opportunities for which we must advance the pending agenda,” said the central export manager of the Association of Exporters (ADEX), Diego Llosa Velásquez.

During his participation in the conference 'Peru-China Agroexports, new trade opportunities with the Chancay megaport' organized by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), he noted that, according to Trademap data, last year this Asian nation imported all over the world goods from the agricultural sector for 207,000 million dollars.

“We have food that we export to other markets, but not to China. According to a Mincetur report, one of them is palm oil, which the Asian country imported in 2023 for 5.1 billion dollars, mainly from Indonesia. Others are sugar and bananas,” he mentioned.

In the Peruvian agroindustrial offer, the blueberry stands out, which in 2023 represented 35.4% of the total agroindustrial exported to China, grapes (21%), avocado (18%), fresh and chilled seaweed (11.4%) and tara powder (Cesalpinia spinosa, 7.5%).

"Its population is enormous, with great economic power and a growing willingness to consume new and natural products, in that context" -continued Llosa Velásquez, who highlighted that public-private collaboration should aim to take advantage of existing opportunities, as well as stressed the need to strengthen the productive capacities and commercial intelligence of agricultural companies, associations and cooperatives on the coast, mountains and jungle, which will expand the export base.

“Historically, China is a large buyer of Peruvian minerals, although in recent years and thanks to the current trade agreement, it has greatly increased its demand for agroindustrial products. From 2009, a year before the FTA came into effect, until 2023, the FOB value increased 18 times,” he commented.

He detailed that fruit imports from the 'Asian giant' grew 13.4% in 2023 and 16% annual average since 2019. Therefore, he considered that Peru could improve its positioning as its fruit supplier in Latin America. It is currently second, only surpassed by Chile, although with a big difference.

“The Asian market stands as an unavoidable opportunity for the diversification of Peruvian exports, which is why we must advance the pending agenda,” he concluded. Health opening is another issue on which work continues and in which the work of the National Agrarian Health Service (Senasa) becomes more relevant.

Agroindustrial exports to China went from 19.4 million dollars in 2009 to 369 million dollars last year.