Peru Sees Exports Rising on Chinese Demand  

Peru'sexports may rise to a record this year after China overtook the United States to become the South American country'stop destination for sales abroad.

Chinese demand will help boost Peru'sexports 17 percent to $31.6 billion after last year's15 percent decline, Juan Carlos Mathews, export director at the government'strade promotion agency Promperu, said in Lima. Exports may rise 9 percent next year, he said.

China overtook the US as Peru's top export destination for the first month on record in July, aided by a free-trade agreement signed in 2009, Mathews said. China accounted for 17 percent of Peru's exports according to preliminary data for July, compared with 16.8 percent for the US, as the world's second-largest economy increased purchases of fruit, fresh fish and wood products, Mathews said.

"We're found an alternative market at a time of global crisis," Mathews said. "The Asian market has been one of the ways out."

Rising sales of food products, fish and textiles will help compensate for a decline in metals prices during the remainder of this year and lead the increase in Peru's exports next year, Mathews said. Metals represented 62 percent of exports in the first half of this year.

Commodities led by copper will probably account for 75 percent of Peru'soverseas sales this year. That share may fall to 70 percent within three years as food and manufactured goods make up a greater percentage of exports, Mathews said.

Food exports may double to $4 billion within five years from about $2 billion projected for this year, he said.