Sunday 17 November 2024
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands, Physical Planning and Immigration, Hon. John Rosso, Meets with Peru’s First Woman President, H.E Dina Boluarte (left) during APEC Leaders’ Week in Peru.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands, Physical Planning and Immigration, Hon. John Rosso says Papua New Guinea can learn from Peru’s experience in the study and research standards into agricultural commodities for export.
Mr Rosso led a small PNG delegation comprising six officials from the Departments of Prime Minister, International Trade and Investment and Foreign Affairs to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting in Lima, Peru this week.
He stressed that innovation and research and global export standards into agro commercial food crops and production is important for Papua New Guinea for access into global markets in agriculture exports
In addition he said PNG has always had difficulty in accessing world export markets due to not meeting world standards for export to many countries that have stringent import regulations.
Mr Rosso suggested PNG partners with the Peruvian Government under a cooperation through exchange programs between PNG Agricultural Agencies and their institutions, Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria del Peru (SENASA) and the Institute of National Innovation Agraria (INIA), to further expand the technical capabilities to develop agricultural products through commercial farming for exports.
Hon. Rosso was given a tour of the two institutions on Thursday 14 November and acknowledged the arrangements facilitated by the Peruvian government for a useful visit.
“We have had difficulty in exporting our agriculture products however we have recently started working closely with the Australian government to authenticate quality standards for meeting export demands.
“We understand the importance of Peru’s initiatives and Papua New Guinea as an agricultural export economy, can learn from the Peruvian experience through the work done by SENASA and INIA to be able to meet the world market standards and requirement.”
Mr Rosso proposes sending representatives from relevant Agricultural Agencies to visit SENASA and INIA and looks forward to further development of Technical Cooperation between Peru and PNG in the near future.
He was impressed by the technical program and study into the eradication of fruit fly under taken by SENASA to ensure that fruits exported to global markets meet the required global sanitary standards from farm to store house and to global consumers.
Peru is one of the world’s leading exporters of fruit and vegetables. It has 22 Free Trade Agreements on Market Access fostering a consistent and reliable trade framework.
Peru’s agricultural exports reached $10.545 billion at the end of 2023 and is projected to exceed $11.5b by the end of 2024, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation.
In Latin America, Peru is the third largest fruit exporter behind Mexico and Chile. In 2023, shipments reached 141 markets, the most important of which are the United States and European Union.