Peru's Relations with South Korea Continue to Grow

In another development to the improving relations of Peru and South Korea, the Latin American country has started shipping fresh mangoes to the East Asian nation.

Andina reported that this was after South Korea allowed into their country export goods from Peru after the Peruvian Irrigation and Agriculture Ministry (Minagri) through dependent National Service for Agricultural Sanitation (Senasa) bureau lobbied for it.

The first containers of fresh mangoes are expected to leave from Paita province in Piura region, which is among the top producers of mango in Peru, aside from Ancash and Lambayeque.

The same report noted that the export of Peru for the past year has totalled to 108,000 tons and this is expected to increase next year.

Peru's agriculture minister Juan Manuel Benites said in a Fresh Fruit Portal report that the opening of the South Korean market will motivate more growers to produce mangoes which will create more jobs for the local farmers.

"In a short time Asia will become one of the regions that brings more income thanks to agri-exports," the minister added.

With this development, Benites also expressed confidence that agricultural exports would total to $6 billion next year especially with the production of major crops like coffee, quinoa, asparagus, avocados, mangoes and grapes.

Enrique Camet, president of the Peruvian Association of Agricultural Producer Unions (AGAP), also welcomed the opening of the South Korean market to Peru noting that this will increase the export of the said fruit.

"We are ready to start exports. We have experience with hot water treatment and we meet all the phytosanitary requirements that Senasa and technical organizations from other importing countries demand," he told Fresh Fruit Portal.

Aside from ties in agriculture, a separate Andina report mentioned that Peru also signed a deal to purchase more than 2,000 police patrol cars from South Korea.

The agreement was reportedly inked by Peru's Interior Minister Jose Luis Perez Guadalupe, Vice President of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency Jeong Oh Ham and, Vice President of Daewoo International Corporation Chan-Kun Han.

Perez said in the Andina report that this is the biggest acquisition of patrol cars that the country has made which amounted to $83 million.

But he claimed that this was made for the national interest since the government is all-out on its effort to provide good automobiles to its police force to help them in their duties in maintaining peace and order in the country.

In 2013, then Peru President Ollanta Humala Tasso also acquired 500 new patrol vehicles for the National Police "to ensure citizen safety," as per Presidencia.