By Alexander Villegas
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Peru, the world’s No. 2 copper exporter, could see farming overtake mining as the biggest economic driver by 2050, the country’s agriculture minister told Reuters, eyeing meat exports to China, tax breaks to boost investment and large-scale irrigation projects to expand farmland.
Angel Manero, the country’s agriculture minister, said Peru saw a 22% boost in agricultural exports in 2024, totaling around $12.5 billion. Manero says the industry is projected to grow an additional $2 billion per year.
“Our goal is to reach $40 billion in exports by 2040,” Manero said in an interview on Thursday, adding that the country is expected to start exporting beef, pork and chicken this year.
“By 2050 we should be overtaking mining in exports.”
Manero said that beef and pork exports to China will start this year after President Dina Boluarte and Xi Jinping discussed the topic during a state visit last June. Peru and China recently signed a deal deepening a free trade agreement originally signed in 2009.
He hopes to add poultry exports down the line and expand meat exports to the United States and European markets.
The United States is currently Peru’s largest agroexport market, followed by Europe, but the country is aiming to close a free trade agreement with India soon and expand into Southeast Asia, the minister added.
To meet these increased goals, large-scale irrigation projects along the coast will add 250,000 hectares of new farmland this year with a goal of 500,000 hectares by June 2026.
Manero said recent changes to a forestry law aim to facilitate land titles and increase productivity on 12 million hectares of deforested land.
“We want to maintain our 67 million hectares of forest,” Manero said. “But where there’s been deforestation years ago, make a real agricultural and livestock development with high productivity, technology, and without a need to knock down more forest.”
African palm oil plantations could increase to 300,000 hectares from the current 100,000 hectares, as well as strengthen coffee and cacao plantations in the Amazonian regions.
Manero hopes a new agrarian law, which reduces the income tax rate from 29.5% to 15%, will be approved this year and help boost investment in the sector to $1 billion in 2025.
(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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