Agroexports totalled US$ 661 million and conquered 101 markets in January

The largest product placements were avocados, onions, strawberries, mangoes and other fruits.

Agro-exports start the year 2021 with positive results. In January, agricultural exports totalled 661 million dollars, with grapes, fresh and frozen mango, fresh asparagus, blueberries, coffee, bananas, avocados and others being the main products in greatest demand in international markets, the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri) reported today.

It detailed that the products which achieved the greatest positive contribution last January compared to the same month in 2020 were: fruits and other fruits (up 95%), fresh avocado (94%), fresh onions and shallots (80%), cocoa beans (79%), preparations used for animal feed (63%), ginger (59%) and fresh blueberries (+19%), among others.
Of the value exported in January, exports of traditional products accounted for 4% of the total, while non-traditional products accounted for the remaining 96%. For example, he specified that traditional agricultural exports during that month reached 26 million dollars.

Within this group of products, shipments of unroasted coffee (24 million dollars) stood out, registering an increase of 12%, and cane molasses (420,000 dollars), whose value increased by 20%.
He emphasised that both products accounted for 91% of traditional agro-exports.

Fruit and vegetables

Midagri said that in the market basket of non-traditional products, exports of fruit and vegetables exceeded 503 million dollars (79% of non-traditional agro-exports) during January, an amount that represented an increase of 4.9% over the same period in 2020.

Meanwhile, agricultural imports during January 2021 reached 475 million dollars, 7.3% higher than the values recorded in the same month of 2020.

Imports

During the period analysed, the largest increases were recorded in imports of the following products: hard yellow corn for a total of 87 million dollars (increase of 30%), soybean cake 66 million dollars (19%), milk and concentrated cream s/ icing sugar 8.2 million dollars (59%), ethyl alcohol s/ denatured 3.2 million dollars (465%).

Also included are semi-milled rice for 14 million dollars (23%), other food preparations 10 million dollars (24%), wheat 41 million dollars (4.5%), refined soya oil 4.2 million dollars (54%), Bolivian soya beans 5.4 million dollars (36%), among others.

Destination markets

Midagri highlighted that during last January, Peruvian agro-exports reached 101 countries, with the United States (42% share), the Netherlands (13%), Hong Kong (6.2%), Spain (4.1%), China (3.7%), Ecuador (2.4%), Chile (2.4%), South Korea (2.3%), Colombia (2.3%) and Mexico (2.3%), the 10 main destination countries for our products from the field.

He added that this group of countries accounted for 81% of the FOB value exported in the first month of the year.

It is worth mentioning that despite the impacts of covid-19 on the markets, agricultural exports totalled at the end of 2020, sales of 7,791 million dollars, which represented an increase of 4.4% compared to sales recorded in 2019.

The agricultural products that achieved the highest contribution to growth last year compared to 2019 were: ginger (155%), piquillo peppers (50), frozen mango (46%), semi-milled rice (44%), other citrus fruits (41%), mandarins (32%), palm oil (24%), blueberries (22%), fresh grapes (19%), among others.