Peru looks at exporting avocados, fresh grapes, blueberries, gold to India

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

India and Peru agreeing to resume talks for a free trade agreement, the South American nation is looking to export avocados, fresh grapes, blueberries, and gold to India, Vice Foreign Trade Minister of Peru Teresa Stella Mera Gomez said. She said that technical teams of India and Peru would meet to start talks on modalities and scope of the proposed agreement. The two countries started negotiations for an FTA in 2017.

Five rounds of talks were held until August 2019 before the COVID pandemic disrupted the process. «We are going to talk again about that (the modalities). Due to the pandemic many things changed so we want to replan additional modalities and our technical teams will hold that conversation,» Gomez has said.

When asked about areas of interest for Peruvian businesses in India, she said Peru's main interests are in exporting agricultural products like avocados, fresh grapes, and blueberries, and natural resources like gold, copper and calcium phosphates. Most of the blueberries that are sold in India are sourced from Peru, she said adding the proposed agreement will at least deal with trade in goods and services. «If areas like investments are to be made part of it will be decided by the technical teams,» she said.

India-Peru trade in 2022-23 stood at USD 3 billion. While India's imports from Peru were USD 2.2 billion, exports stood at USD 865 million. India's main exports to Peru include automobiles, motorcycles and three-wheelers, polyester and cotton yarns, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel products, plastic products, and tyres.