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The Ambassador of Peru to South Africa, Mr Nicolas Roncagliolo says Peru and South Africa have the potential to become successful economic partners. He was speaking to a group of South African businesspeople who are in Peru on an Outward Trade and Investment Mission led by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). The week-long mission, which started on Sunday, is aimed at assisting manufacturers and exporters of value-added products and services seek trade and investment opportunities in the South American country.

“There are major companies from South Africa that already have large investments in Peru. These include SAB Miller and Gold Fields who have invested approximately US$4.8 billion in our country. Due to Peru's economic boom over the past 10 years, we also have the presence of more than 30 South African small and medium enterprises doing business in the country mostly in the mining sector,” said Roncagliolo.

He expressed his appreciation that the South African market was opening gradually for Peruvian products, especially for fresh and processed agricultural produce, as well as for fishery. 


Roncagliolo added that his country’s embassy in SA was working persistently to increase trade and investments with SA.

“Since the dawn of democracy in the country, we have worked steadily with South Africa to increase the political links between our countries.  Our attention has since turned on promoting business opportunities between Peru and SA. To this end, we opened a commercial office in Pretoria last year. The office has been tasked with the responsibility of strengthening bilateral economic relations and increasing our trade and investment with SA. This underscores our belief that Peru and South Africa have the potential to become successful economic partners. We are encouraged that our efforts have started to show results and the fact that a group of SA businesspeople is visiting our country for the second year in a row bears testimony to this,” said Roncagliolo.

He further explained that Peru also focused on forging links with chambers of commerce in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Limpopo to expand its footprint in the country.

He expressed contentment that South African companies have shown interest in doing business with his country and are receptive to the Peruvian’s efforts aimed at exposing opportunities in Peru to the SA companies. This he said, was evident when 54 SA companies attended a Doing Business with the Pacific Alliance Member States that the embassy hosted in partnership with the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the embassies of Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

120 travel agencies attended the two tourism workshops that his embassy organised in Johannesburg and Cape Town last year in order to promote Peru as a touristic destination among South Africans.

“Next month our businesspeople will participate in SAITEX (Southern African International Trade Exhibition) for the first time. This event constitutes the most important fair of the African continent and brings together key buyers from Africa in the fields of food and manufacturing. All of these efforts confirm Peru’s recognition of SA as an important country that we need to do more business with,” concluded Roncagliolo.

Issued by The Department of Trade and Industry