Non-traditional exports from Peru to the European Union (EU) were valued at more than US$ 2 billion, recording a 6.7 percent year-on-year increase, Peruvian Deputy Foreign Trade Minister, Edgar Vasquez, announced on Wednesday.
The reported positive performance was given despite that Peruvian shipments to the European bloc were affected last year by the worldwide financial turmoil which began in 2008 and the low commodities prices.
Vasquez noted the Andean nation has experienced a three-fold increase in exports to the world’s largest trading bloc after climbing from US$ 2 billion to US$ 6.7 billion over the last ten years.
“The country’s total exports to the EU has followed a positive trend with an average annualized growth of nearly 14 percent,” Peru’s administration senior official told Andina news agency.
In 2013, the agricultural exports stood out with an expansion of 12 percent while non-traditional shipments from the fishing sector soared 8 percent.
The most-sought after products during the aforementioned period were canned and fresh asparagus, mangoes, grapes, and organic bananas, while among seafood items were squid and giant squid.
“Germany, Spain and Italy were the top export markets for the Peruvian products sending abroad by accounting for 55 percent of the total exports,” Vasquez said at an event organized by the country’s Export and Tourism Promotion Board (PromPeru).
Likewise, he pointed out that the major destination markets for non-traditional export from Peru to the EU were the Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom which all together represented 60 percent of the total.
