According to the latest news from the Ministry of Commerce website, in the first half of 2010, Peru’s fishery products exported US$3.2936 trillion, an increase of 22.7% year-on-year. Among the export products, frozen products exported 230 million U.S. dollars and fresh food products exported 84 million U.S. dollars, up by 24% and 22% respectively. China exported 40 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 16% of total fishery exports, an increase of 92.2% year-on-year.

Among the countries that exported fishery products in Peru in the first half of this year, the United States accounted for the largest share, followed by Spain, and China ranked third. The three countries accounted for 20%, 19%, and 16% of total Peruvian fishery exports, respectively, an increase of 19.0%, 66.6%, and 92.2%. The news shows that the main varieties of fishery products exported to the United States are prawn and frozen fish steaks and fish meat, reaching US$23 million and US$15 million respectively. Of the US$38 million exported to Spain, mainly frozen squid. The fishery products exported to China are mainly processed and preserved soft-shelled fish, with a total value of 40 million US dollars. According to the China-Secretariat bilateral free trade agreement, China's current tariff on such products is 5%, and it will gradually decrease to 0 in 2017.

Fishing is one of the engines of economic growth in Peru. The industry’s vast resources, capture capabilities and processing facilities have ensured its sustainable growth over the medium to long term. Sources said that Peru’s exports to the European Union are particularly noteworthy because the Peruvian-European FTA agreement will provide Peru with a market opportunity of 500 million people.

The news also pointed out that although Peru’s fishery industry has resource advantages over some countries, it also has a mature market that hopes to provide new fishery products with high quality and food security. However, most of Peru’s export fishery products have low added value, and products exported to destination countries need further processing. Therefore, how the fishery industry produces more processed products to increase the added value of products should be mentioned in the agenda to be solved.