Peruvians talk trade

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Two Peruvian officials were in Yakima on Friday to discuss how to expand business relationship with the region.

Staff and board members of New Vision, the county's economic development arm, and the Central Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce met with Ernesto Molina Chavez, governor of Peru's Ayacucho region, and Ernesto A. Quiroz Mannucci, a council member of the Tumbes region.

It was part of a three-day visit to the Tri-Cities area. State Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland, invited the Peruvian officials to come here after his recent visit.

The gathering comes nine months after the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement went into effect. The agreement allows for increased trade of goods and services between the countries, lifts tariffs on several products, and removes other barriers for doing business in each country.

During the Yakima visit, Peruvian officials promoted some of their products, including coffee, chocolate and stevia, a sweetener that is growing in popularity. They also expressed interest in working with the U.S. on humanitarian efforts.

In turn, Yakima business officials talked about some of the Valley's key offerings, such as apples, grapes and hops. Peru already imports 30 percent of its hops from Washington state.

Javier Munguia, co-owner of Washington Export, a Yakima company that ships fruits to several countries, including ones in South and Central America, talked about the types of fruit his company could ship to Peru.

Munguia said he's shipped there in the past, but that he found it difficult.

"Our intent is to open relations with Peru," he said. "It's always nice to have government connections."

There was slight discomfort from officials when the topic of importing and exporting vegetables came up in the discussion. Asparagus from Peru has entered the United States duty-free since 1991 under a trade act designed to encourage growers to produce vegetable crops rather than those used in drugs.

The import of Peruvian asparagus has weakened the Washington state asparagus industry. Processing plants have shut down, forcing growers to sell a majority of their crop on the fresh market in the U.S.

But ultimately there was no mention of the subject during the meeting, which generally was viewed as positive for both local and Peruvian officials.

Chavez and Mannucci said they plan to return in a few weeks and hope to organize a longer visit to the Yakima area.

"There's a lot of successful warehouses in Washington," Chavez said. He wants to cultivate relationships with those businesses to generate more importing and exporting activity.

Though it was a short visit, it was a successful one, said Lisa Pearl Smith, business development director for New Vision.

"I felt we got a good sense of what we'll need for the next meeting," she said. "The country is ready to ready to reach out to other countries for exporting and importing."

* Mai Hoang can be reached at 577-7685 or mhoang@yakimaherald.com.