After Chile launched its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Australia 11 years ago, last Tuesday it was Peru's turn. That day the "beneficial" agreement for the neighboring country with the ocean giant, which will allow 96% of Peruvian products entering that country to be duty free.

In this way Peru continues with its strategy to position itself in the international commercial context, particularly in the Pacific Asia, introducing products such as avocado, fresh grapes, blueberries and tangerines, fruits in which both Chile and Peru are strong worldwide and that , specifically in blueberries, both countries will also start competing in Australia.

Peru, in recent years, is an economy that has been gaining agro-export land on the globe, at the expense of some Chilean products. Although Chile's fruit export numbers remain above Peruvians, the truth is that the latter are well above in terms of what they say in relation to growth. And that in the national agricultural world they know and link it to the powerful commercial opening strategy that has been dragging the neighboring country.

"Peru also competes strongly with Chile in China, the United States and, in general, everywhere"held Emol the president of the Federation of Fruit Producers of Chile (Fedefruta), Jorge Valenzuela, adding to these new FTAs ​​that Peru is celebrating with countries like Australia pressure Chile.

“In some way we believed that we were the jaguars of Latin America at the time and the Peruvians have shown that working, investing and doing things well can grow”, he said, detailing that Peru takes advantage of Chile, for example, in the water issue.

“It is something that they have quite advanced in the conversation and in the investment. They have also been quite aggressive commercially. Peruvians are advancing very quickly (…), we also have to advance in that and look at Peru as they have done in recent years and how efficient they have been in recent years,” Valenzuela stressed.

"More than seeing Peru as a competition, you have to see it as a partner, since we produce the same products on the same dates."

Jorge Valenzuela

Having said that, the leader of Fedefruta celebrated "that Peru has been able to make its treaty, because it will stimulate the consumption of fruit from the southern hemisphere", adding that Peru “Rather than seeing it as a competition, you have to see it as a partner, since we produce the same products on the same dates. What we have to look for is how to complement each other to standardize qualities, standardize products and generally have good products from the southern hemisphere in the rest of the world”.

Meanwhile, from the Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile (Asoex), its president, Ronald Bown He explained to the same media that they do not see with bad eyes that Peru make trade agreements in markets where Chile is positioned. "We are interested in competition, and that is good for everyone, because a competitor who is better than us teaches us and we have to find a way to do it well"He said.

US $ 506 million

It was the commercial exchange between Chile and Australia in 2019

"Just as we believe that we have to be abroad and have facilities to enter, we also believe that our competitors have the same possibility of doing so abroad, even in our country," he stressed.

The commercial relationship between Chile and Australia

Regarding what the Australian market means for Chile, Valenzuela pointed out that it is a country "that you always have to look at, it is a large, deep market that consumes fruit." However, Bown sees the oceanic country more as a competitor as it is a "major player in the fruit world" and "We are not exporting a lot of fruit to Australia."

This, he added, since "we have some quite complex situations from the point of view of internal producers and also distribution chains. They (Australians) have some reluctance about imports." 

"We are interested in competition, and that is good for everyone, because a competitor who is better than us teaches us and we have to find a way to do it well."

Ronald Bown

In fact, according to figures delivered to Emol by the Subsecretariat of International Economic Relations, Chile only exported US $ 1,3 million in fruit to Australia in 2019, while the fort was registered by Chilean industrial products - such as processed salmon, bottled wine and cellulose - that arrive in that country, scoring US $ 190 million.

In total, trade between Chile and Australia last year was US $ 506 million, indicating an increase of 5,5% compared to 2018. While Chilean exports to the oceanic country in 2019 were US $ 274 million, up 25% compared to the previous year.