Despite the negative effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on different Peruvian agricultural export sectors (which -between January and July 2020- together registered a 3.9% year-on-year fall, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation), ginger has experienced spectacular growth, stated Luis Torres, the president of Promperu.
This growth is corroborated by the figures provided by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur). In 2019, FOB Peruvian ginger exports totaled 41.5 million dollars. Between January and July of this year, the country's ginger exports amount to 36 million dollars, i.e. 110.8% more than in the same period of the previous year. Monthly exports ranged between 2 and 6.5 million dollars. There were fewer shipments in April, but they increased in the following months.
Susana Yturry, the manager of agro-exports of the Association of exporters (Adex), said this increase happened because China - the main world exporter of ginger - stopped making shipments to the European and US markets.
“The pandemic and the US ban on Chinese exports opened an opportunity for Peruvian ginger that the companies identified and took advantage of, positioning us in the top 5," she said.
29 International markets
According to data from Adex, in the first seven months of the year, ginger exports to 9 countries increased by more than 100%. Shipments to the USA, the main destination for this Peruvian vegetable, increased in value by 109%, while shipments to the Netherlands increased by 148%, exports to Spain grew by 102%, to Germany by 256%, Italy (137%), Brazil (1,705 %), France (193%), Argentina (129%), and Ecuador (314%).
In addition, the country opened 14 new export markets and now exports this product to 29 destinations. The most significant were Russia, South Korea, and the Dominican Republic. The country only stopped exporting to Panama and Taiwan.
"They have tried our product and there are international buyers who are not going to return to Chinese ginger when things go back to normal," Yturry stressed.
Source: larepublica.pe