Even though farmers are preoccupied with the threat of El Niño, Peru's Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (Minagri) expects the country will increase agriculture exports this year.

The forecast 3.4% rate is 6 percentage points up on the expected growth rate of 2.8% for 2015; the latter driven mainly by livestock sector.

The forecast is based on the incorporation of 126,610 hectares of new farming land in 17 regions, representing a 10% higher planting rate year-on-year.

Key products to drive growth rates include rice at 8.7%, coffee at 8.3% and asparagus at 3.4%, as well as corn (2.3%), bananas (4.8%), grapes (1.1%), cacao (3.5%), avocados (2.6%) and mandarins (2.9%).

In other areas of agriculture, beef exports are set to rise 4.7% and poultry shipments will likely increase by 3.9%.

MINAGRI expects total agri-exports to exceed US$6 billion for the year.

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