Peru's poultry sector optimistic amid tough market climate

Amid the tough conditions in 2009, Peru's poulty sector survived through as compared to its Latin American neighbours.

Peru's poultry sector has noticed high levels of investment over the past decade. Poultry production is Peru's most valuable livestock sub-sector.

From 2000-2008, poultry production grew by 61.8%. During the first 10 months of 2009, the production grew by 7.3% to 768,760 tonnes, amid the economic slowdown.

Over the forecast period, continued strong growth in production is expected and forecast annual output is to reach 1.22 million tonnes in 2014, up 30.4% on the 2009 level. However, there are still issues pulling the sector back despite the overall rosy outlook for poultry. Often, poor sanitary conditions and a lack of knowledge among producers create problems in disease control.

In December, the Agriculture Minister Adolfo de Cordova said Peru's agricultural GDP was expected to grow by 2.5% year-on-year in 2009, considering the poor world economic conditions and the poor weather that affected agricultural production across South America, and the turnout could have been in a worse state.