Peru leads growth of non-traditional exports in Latin American region

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru led the growth of non-traditional exports among the Latin American region’s leading economies, with a year-on-year expansion rate of 25.7% in the twelve months up to last August, informed this Tuesday (12) the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCR).

The agency indicated that, between September 2020 and August 2021, these exports reached 16.5% in Mexico, 14.5% in Brazil, 14.4% in Colombia, and 4.6% in Chile.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Peru

In Peru, non-traditional exports amounted to US$1.39 billion in August, which implied growth of 26.9% compared to the same month of 2019, before the pandemic, due to the volumes shipped, which advanced 26.6%.

In relation to August 2020, they grew at a year-on-year rate of 18%, with a growth in the volume of foreign sales of 9.5% and 7.8% in prices.

In the accumulated January to August of this year, these exports reached US$9.9 billion, a growth of 13.2% compared to 2019 and 35.8% compared to January-August 2020.

According to the BCR, this result was explained by higher shipments of agricultural products, mainly fruits, textiles, chemicals, fisheries, iron and steel, and non-metallic mining products.

In August 2021, Peruvian foreign sales of fresh avocados grew by 86.4% compared to August 2019 and 24.4% compared to the same month in 2020.

Those of blueberries did so by 76.4% compared to the same month of 2019 and by 9.3% compared to August 2020, while fresh asparagus had a drop of 0.2% compared to August 2019, but an increase of 3.1% over the same month last year.

In the accumulated January-August 2021, the products that were sold abroad the most were fresh avocados, with a growth of 40.5% compared to the same period of 2019 and 43.3% compared to the first months of 2020.

In addition, blueberries increased 31.3% compared to the same period of 2019 and 17.2% compared to January-August 2020, and fresh asparagus increased by 6.4% and 12% compared to the same period of 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Related coverage: China approaches Chile seeking support for its application to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership bloc · Peru's agricultural trade balance surplus grew 7 times in last decade · The global context might still be favorable for Argentina · Even an interest-rate hike won't save Chile's peso, the worst emerging-market currency -Bloomberg

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