The "logistics" challenge is key for Peru to fully leverage its commercial potential in the Middle East, a region where investment opportunities in the Andean country are also "very attractive," said Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer.

In an interview with EFE from Riyadh, the official summarized his five-day tour of the region, which took him to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. He visited governments, business leaders, and sovereign wealth funds to demonstrate Peru's willingness to attract capital and business partners in a region of the world that "was not being given the priority it needed."

He acknowledged the "interest and attractiveness" that these four countries hold for Peru and said he had discovered "with great pleasure" that Peru "is also very attractive to them," with its multi-billion-dollar investment portfolio in energy and mining and its thriving agribusiness, which can penetrate a market that imports "US$70.000 billion a year in food."

He indicated that the visit, the first to this region by a Peruvian foreign minister in more than a decade, sought to provide "concrete, highly operational content" to bilateral relations with the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, where the "economic" aspect is clearly fundamental, with the trade aspect focused on agribusiness and the investment aspect on raising capital for the energy and mining sectors.

Logistics
In this context, he emphasized that the "common challenge" to be faced is the logistics required for fresh and frozen food from Peru to reach these markets, something that cannot be "a problem."

“We have only recorded US$11.7 million in sales to the region […] The problem [in improving these figures] can't be logistics. Our main client is China; we sell everything to them, and there's already a perfect arrangement to deliver perishables on time. If we can reach China, it's not impossible to get here from Peru,” he said.

He noted that there are already air service agreements with Qatar and Kuwait, and said he hopes others will soon emerge with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

In fact, promoting air service agreements was key to this trip, in order to "establish the institutional framework necessary to commercially evaluate how to reach Peru more efficiently."

"Qatar Airways' business on its flights to Brazil is cargo, not people. That's what we need to generate (to extend the route to Lima). If we can address what they call food security with our friends in the Gulf, the truth is that the plane is the logistics tool par excellence," he emphasized.