A TASTE OF PERUVIAN DELIGHT: $25 MLN NEGOTIATED AND OVER 7850 VISITORS AT THE FIRST EDITION OF EXPOALIMENTARIA
January 21, 2010
Peru showed its wide variety of food and beverages for internal and external trade in the first edition of Expoalimentaria, an international trade fair successfully organised by ADEX, the Exporters’ Association of Peru, the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture and the Peruvian Export Promotion Agency (Promperú). The main sponsor of the event was Scotiabank. It was also strategically supported by the Private Investment Promotion Agency (Proinversión) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, making it a true public-private venture. The CBI also contributed.
The first edition of Expoalimentaria was attended by around 6790 professional visitors, including 6293 Peruvian and 497 foreign visitors. These numbers show the increasing expectations the world has of Peruvian food products. 40% of the buyers came from South America, 29% from North America, 22% from Europe, 5% from Asia, 4% from Central America and the Caribbean and 1% from Africa and Oceania.
Demos liven up trade
During Peru’s first Expoalimentaria trade fair, a number of special events took place, including one named ‘Our food’. It consisted of cooking demos by students from the San Ignacio de Loyola University, using local products from various regions of Peru and producing exquisite Peruvian dishes.
Promperú presented ‘Peru Natura’, a special exhibition that brought together small producers from the highlands of Puno, Huancavelica and Ayacucho, dressed in local costumes from their communities and presenting a big variety of highly nutritious products such as quinoa, amaranth, and beans, which raised much interest from foreign buyers. With support from the Ministry of Agriculture, small agricultural producers from the Peruvian regions of Cusco, Piura, Junin, Ayacucho, Ancash, and La Libertad were also able to participate in the fair.
Peruvian businesses were keen to meet the 80 international buyers that visited the fair. At the end of the fair, 31 of these international buyers had negotiated around 25 mln US dollars with Peruvian businesses. High performing products in these transactions include grapes, citrus fruits, mangoes, canned asparagus, artichokes and olives. Other Peruvian products that caught a lot of attention were olive oil, evaporated milk, grains and beans. Peruvian exhibitors at Expoalimentaria also demonstrated their knowledge and management of food industry technology and high quality standards. This is expected to improve in next year’s edition with more participation of new food technology, machinery and equipment companies. ADEX organised three thematic fora at the fair, attended by more than 1000 professionals: the 2nd National Convention on Organic Production, the 4th Convention of Business Opportunities in Aquaculture, and the 1st International Seminar on Fresh and Processed Fruits and Vegetables. The CBI contributed to the Seminar on Fresh and Processed Fruits and Vegetables through CBI expert Mr Freek-Jan Koekoek, who led sessions on European trends and opportunities in these sectors.
Strategic alliance
The Expoalimentaria fair was the fruit of a strategic alliance between various public and private institutions. It was supported at the highest level by Peruvian President Alan García, who announced his continued support for future editions The president of ADEX, Mr Jose Luis Silva Martinot, expressed his extreme satisfaction with the results obtained in this first edition of Expoalimentaria and stressed the importance of these strategic alliances in the continued promotion of Peruvian export products. These strategic alliances should turn Peru into a regional business platform with displays of food growers and exporters from all countries in the region.
For More information: Mr Erik Plaisier, programme manager, eplaisier@cbi.eu, Ms Marianella Hernandez, mhernandez@adexperu.org.pe, Ms Carla San Martin, csanmartin@adexperu.org.pe.
