The cream of the crop
PERU POSSESSES SOME OF THE WORLD'S MOST LUCRATIVE CASH CROPS. A FAR-REACHING PROGRAM IS NOW AIMING TO REJUVENATE THE COUNTRY'S AGRICULTURAL AND FISHING INDUSTRIES

POULTRY HOUSE of San Fernando, a leading group in the food business in Peru.

Just like Peru’s large mining industry, the country’s agriculture sector, which accounts for some 15% of GDP, has the potential for bringing home the gold. Indeed, President Alejandro Toledo’s administration stresses that agribusiness holds the key to job creation and economic growth.
And since the industry has been lagging behind in recent years, there are plenty of opportunities for investors to cultivate. Both analysts and farmers agree that the country needs to get to work on identifying its strengths, attracting investment in new technology and pushing open the door to new markets if it wants agriculture to become an important player of the export sector.

“We only have so many hectares with which to work, and so we have set some pretty simple goals that focus on about seven traditional crops,” explains Agriculture Minister Alvaro Quijandría Salmón. “We cannot go back to the old way of doing things, and if we don’t find a way to make these crops more profitable, the agriculture sector will languish.”
Thus, the current administration has embarked on a far-reaching program to attract investments and improve agro-industry technology. “By spurring investment, we could triple production of non-traditional agro-industry products within five years and compete with countries like Chile, which has a strong export base,” Mr. Quijandría predicts.

And that has been one of the secrets of the Avicola San Fernando poultry company, which last year invested $7 million to purchase machinery and to boost production of prepared foods that also includes pork products. “We are preparing to become huge exporters,” explains general manager Alberto N. Ikeda when asked about the multi-million dollar investment. “We already export to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Central America and Japan, and a lot of the investment went into making our plants meet ISO standards.”
The company sells directly to consumers in Peru at five of its own stores as well as other supermarket chains. It is also the exclusive supplier of chicken for KFC and Burger King in Peru.
Peru’s huge fishing industry has done its fair share of propping up agribusiness exports at a rate of $1.2 billion per year, or about 20% of the country’s total exports. The fishing sector leader is without a doubt Austral, with its fleet of some 50 vessels and manufacturing capabilities that make it a regional leader in the production of canned fish and high-tech fishmeal and oil.

JUAN RODOLFO WIESNER CEO of Austral

“Peru is perhaps the richest fishing country in the world, with some 2,500 kilometers of Pacific coast that extends some 200 miles into open seas,” notes Austral CEO Juan Rodolfo Wiesner, who adds that recent outbreaks of disease that have restricted meat consumption in the world, especially in Europe and parts of Asia, mean consumers are turning to animal protein from the ocean as a basic alternative.
“We believe that the fishing sector is going to have an even brighter future within the next few years,” Mr. Wiesner says. “And we see a fundamental change evolving in the business side of the activity that we believe will spark interest and result in more foreign investment in the industry.”