Agricultural exports slowed down and grew only 0.8% in the first two months

The Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (midagri) reported that, in the first two months of the year, agricultural exports accumulated US$1,729 millionwhich meant an increase of only 0.8% compared to sales registered in the same period last year.

In that period, the traditional agricultural exports reached US$93 million, while non-traditional exports totaled US$1,636 million, a figure 12% higher than what was observed in 2022. The main products in the ranking were fresh grapes US$637 million (39% stake), fresh mangoes US$144 million (8.8%), fresh cranberries US$131 million (8.0%) and the fresh or chilled asparagus US$44 million (2.7%).

Products that boosted exports

Midagri highlighted that the products whose shipments increased the most were the evaporated milk (+188%), algae (+102%), cocoa beans (+62%), avocados (+35%), asparagus prepared or preserved (+33%), animal feed (+28%), fresh or chilled asparagus (+25%), fresh cranberries (+25%), fresh grapes (+24%), among others.

In addition, it should be noted that within the basket of non-traditional products, fruit and vegetable exports totaled sales of more than US$1,156 million FOB (71% of non-traditional agricultural exports) as of February 2023, a figure that meant an increase of 14.5% compared to 2022.

main destinations

The ten main countries of destination of Peruvian agricultural exports were: United States, Holland, Mexico, China, Ecuador, Spain, Hong Kong, Canada, Chile and Colombia. This group of nations concentrated 80% of the total exported FOB value.

On the other hand, the agricultural trade balance recorded a surplus of US$800 million, a 1.2% higher figure compared to the amount registered in the same period last year, and whose increase is due to the greater increase in dollars of agricultural exports compared to to the lower increase in agricultural imports.