Peru’s farm exports grew just 1.9% to US$8.005 billion from January to August, the exporters’ association ADEX said on Thursday, 8 October. That’s a sharp drop from the 21% growth recorded in the same period in 2025 and 20% in 2024. A year earlier, the country shipped US$7.856 billion in farm goods.
The slowdown hits a sector that has been among the country’s steadiest private-sector success stories. Farm exports accounted for about a tenth of Peru’s total exports in the period. The Andean nation of 34 million is a major supplier of metals and fruit.
The Numbers Behind the Slowdown
Five of the first eight months posted growth. Three didn’t. Exports fell 4.8% in May, 0.9% in June and 2.8% in July, according to figures reported by the business daily Gestión. August shipments rebounded 1.5%.
Agro-industrial goods, which Peru classifies as non-traditional exports, made up 90.3% of farm exports and rose 1.8% to US$7.231 billion. Fruit sales reached US$4.561 billion. Blueberry exports climbed 47.9% in value, grapes 17.6% and avocados 8.3%. Coffee edged up 0.6% to US$701.7 million, helped by an early harvest that ADEX linked to El Niño.
Some products fell behind. Shipments of mangoes, fresh asparagus, citrus and cocoa powder dropped in volume.
Cocoa Takes a Hit
Cocoa has its own story. San Martín, an Amazon region that grows about half of Peru’s cocoa, faced heavy rain and humidity from March to May. The weather damaged flowering and ripening, cutting volumes. At the same time, larger harvests in Ivory Coast and Ghana pushed world cocoa prices lower, squeezing growers from two directions.
José Antonio Mejía, who chairs ADEX’s coffee and cocoa committee, said this year’s harvest missed its usual June and July peak, with declines of 15% to 30%. He warned that the trend could continue until year’s end. He proposed a plant-health campaign and more resources for small producers.
El Niño on the Horizon
ADEX warned that El Niño, a periodic Pacific warming that brings heat and heavy rain to Peru, could affect northern crops such as blueberries. The severity of the impact on the northern fruit harvest from November remains unclear. Northern regions, including Piura and La Libertad, grow much of the fruit Peru sells abroad.
The state committee that monitors the phenomenon, ENFEN, issues updates every two weeks; its latest came on 28 September. ENFEN said in May that coastal El Niño conditions could last until February 2027, Gestión reported. Its next communiqué was expected in mid-October.
Peru’s government hasn’t published a new farm export forecast. ADEX hasn’t said how much El Niño contributed to the slowdown, and it blamed heavy rain for cocoa losses. Blueberry and grape harvests peak late in the year, so the real test lies ahead.
A Market Built on American Demand
The United States is the largest buyer of Peruvian farm goods, including fruit, vegetables and coffee. The United States, the Netherlands and Spain take 57% of Peru’s non-traditional farm exports. Earlier ADEX data showed U.S. buyers took US$1.4 billion of those goods from January to May, nearly twice the Dutch figure. Shipments of traditional farm goods to the United States, mainly coffee, rose 16.1%.
Peru also supplies blueberries, grapes, avocados and asparagus to U.S. shoppers during the off-season.
The broader export picture remains strong. Mining helped lift Peru’s total exports 34.3% to US$74.1 billion, ADEX said on 6 October. ADEX’s next monthly report should show whether September brought a recovery. The full ADEX release text wasn’t available online, and the detailed figures rely on its summary and Gestión’s report.
Why This Matters:
Private growers and exporters built Peru’s farm export boom by competing for foreign buyers, not through state planning. Its cooling shows how exposed such businesses are to weather and commodity prices they can’t control. Growth fell from about 20% to under 2% in a single year. That matters most for the small producers Mejía says need support, and for northern regions where fruit is a major export. Mining has carried total exports to US$74.1 billion, cushioning the farm sector’s weakness but not erasing it. Late-year blueberry and grape harvests will show whether this is a pause or a longer stall. For exporters and the U.S. consumers who rely on Peru’s off-season supply, the answer will come soon, and the market, not Lima, will deliver it.