Peruvian exports grow almost 30% during the first 4 months of 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peruvian exports grew nearly 30 % during the first four months of this year and surpassed the previous levels of the pandemic, with a great increase in fishing and textile exports advanced by more than 50 %, official sources informed this Thursday.

The Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Claudia Cornejo, highlighted that her country’s exports reached US$15.1 billion in the four-month period, a value 29.5% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2020 and 4% higher than that of 2019.

Cornejo pointed out that this result was the product of higher sales of non-traditional (33.1%) and traditional (28%) products, thanks to improved international prices and the national and international economic reactivation.

She also highlighted that the export growth during last April was 99.8%, reaching foreign sales of US$3.7 billion.

Peru’s foreign trade of goods, between exports and imports, reached US$29.6 billion between January and April, representing a growth of 28.8% compared to the same period in 2020.

GREAT PERFORMANCE OF FISHING

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) detailed that in January-April 2021, all export subsectors showed positive growth rates compared to the same period of 2020.

In this regard, fishing increased its shipments in April and the first four months of the year (by 247.8% and 116.5%, respectively), due to the greater availability of raw material, with a large growth in the export of traditional goods (flour and oil), by 394.9% and 182.4%, respectively, in the periods indicated.

Sales of non-traditional products such as squid (273.7% and 96.4%, respectively), fan shell (212.4% and 95.6%), frozen fish (119% and 52.6%) and shrimp (72.3% and 10.5%) also grew.

OTHER SECTORS

The official information added that agro-exports increased by 47% in April and by 19% in the first four months of the year and that exports from the textile and clothing sector amounted to US$107 million in April 2021.

This implied growth of 713% compared to April 2020, when these activities remained closed due to the sanitary emergency, and growth in the first four months of this year of 53.5%, for a total of US$460 million.

Mincetur also reported that trade between Peru and China grew by 59% between January and April, with an overall growth of 45% in the Asian region. With Europe, it increased by 23% and with the American continent 18%.

BOOSTING IMPORTS

During the first quarter of this year, the Ministry added that imports were boosted by the increase in investment and domestic production by 34% and 3.8%.

In the first four months of 2021, imports of goods increased by 28%, with higher purchases of information technology equipment, which increased by 90%, transportation by 40%, and construction materials by 20%.

Between January and April, imports of consumer durables grew by 43%, with higher purchases of household appliances, and imports of non-durable consumer goods also increased by 10% due to higher purchases of face masks, pharmaceuticals, food, and toiletries, and cleaning products.