Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) statistics show Cavendish Valery bananas notched the highest growth rate out of a rapidly-growing fruit industry during the first seven months of 2012.

Shipments of the fruit grew by 24.1%, closely followed by table grapes at 23.7%, fresh avocados at 21.5% and fresh mandarins at 12.5%.

A MINAG release highlighted the top price increase for export produce was for mangoes, rising by 37.8%, followed by asparagus (19.4%), mandarins (12.5%) and prepared artichokes (8.8%).

However, the average price for agricultural exports in total fell by 5.7%, likely driven by heavy price falls for coffee (-26%), cocoa beans (-25%) and paprika (-17.1%).

The country shipped agricultural goods to 139 countries over the period with the U.S. as the leading destination (24.7%), followed by the Netherlands (10.9%), Germany (6.7%), Spain (6.5%), Ecuador (6.4%) and Colombia (5.9%).

Total agricultural export values rose by just 0.2% to US$2.1 billion, but increased imports of soybeans, sugar, rice and powdered milk led to an agricultural trade deficit of US$131.4 million.

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