After the announcement that Russia would no longer allow the import of meat, fish, fruits, vegetables and dairy products from Western countries, a potential market opened for Peru, which may soon start shipping large export volumes to that country.
For Carlos Garcia, head of the Foreign Trade Center of the Chamber of Commerce of Lima, this is an excellent opportunity to introduce non-traditional products in this country, which has a great purchasing power.
He said that Peruvian products with potential demand in Russia include fresh grapes (which would be sold for up to US$ 86 million), avocados (US$ 15 million), mandarins ( US$100 million), peaches ( US$240 million) and blueberries (US$ 17 million), which would total approximately US$458 million.
He added that, due to the magnitude of the Russian market, the country could easily absorb Peru's export supply or, alternatively, encourage production volumes to increase, which he considered a better alternative.
He said that the Trade Office and the Peruvian ambassador in Moscow have started communicating with their Russian counterparts to find out what opportunities there are to start business in the short term, but also warned that there are serious logistical problems which would delay the start of exports.
"The opportunity exists, but we need to work on it. We need private companies and the Government to start a promotional campaign and then the health authorities to inform of the products that have a protocol. That is important, because then we will able to work on the protocols for the products that do not have one yet and export the expected volumes," he stated.
He stressed that the Russian Embassy in Lima has already met with the unions to report the Government's decision, and to inform them that they are interested in Latin America as a potential food supplier, according to
freshplaza.com
"This will not only benefit Peru, but also other countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, since Russia was purchasing a third of the meat and dairy produced by the European Union and the leading South American countries in these sectors have already started working," he concluded.
(END) INT/DLG
Published: 8/30/2014