Peru achieves zero tariff in Hong Kong with current FTA

On September 1 of this year, a historic achievement was made in Peru's commercial relationship with Hong Kong, with immediate zero tariffs for all its exportable goods.

The free trade agreement signed with this Asian market is not limited to eliminating the last pending barrier in a market that already operated as a free port, according to an article published in the Ekonomika Supplement of El Peruano newspaper.

Furthermore, it provides orderly rules of origin, predictable customs procedures, and an institutional platform for resolving disputes, attributes that Peruvian exporting companies value as much as or more than the current tariff reduction.

The potential opened by this agreement is considerable and deserves to be measured with concrete figures. According to the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), Hong Kong imports $20.948 billion in agricultural goods from the world and exports only $9.788 billion, a sectoral deficit of $11.160 billion that reveals an unsatisfied demand of remarkable proportions.

Peru, which in its best year placed $275 million in fruits and vegetables, has before it a potential segment exceeding $7 billion: blueberries, grapes, avocados, citrus fruits, mangoes, asparagus, and frozen fruits concentrate the most immediate opportunities.

While sauces, baked goods, and processed chocolates open a second wave of untapped growth.

Capitalizing on this open door, however, requires looking beyond the legal text, in addition to taking advantage of market opportunities.

Blueberries, avocados, and grapes accounted for 93% of the exported value in 2025, and the 62% drop recorded that year, followed by another 50% drop in the first half of 2026, exposed how much the trade balance depends on just three harvests.

Behind this volatility operates a factor that no tariff chapter negotiates: physical climate risk.

Droughts, unseasonal frosts, early blooms, and water stress alter calibers, harvest windows, and exportable volumes before any commercial preference comes into play.

This agronomic uncertainty precisely erodes the predictability of income that the treaty seeks to offer.

For exporters, the practical implication is clear and demands concrete investment decisions: the challenge is no longer just commercial.

Operational resilience to climatic phenomena, varietal and geographical diversification of farms, and investment in technified irrigation become as decisive as the logistical capex allocated to the cold chain or the use of the Chancay corridor.

Whoever concentrates their offer on three fruits and a handful of valleys will assume an increasing opportunity cost each time the climate, and not the Asian market, determines the volume shipped. The agreement with Hong Kong thus provides a genuine and long-awaited commercial window for the sector; its future profitability, however, will depend on agro-climatic management that currently appears incipient.

Peruvian export agriculture needs to shield its offer against climate variability with the same discipline with which it negotiated tariff preferences because no certificate of origin protects a harvest that simply never arrives at the port on time.

Agro-exporters employ thousands of rural families whose incomes depend on the pace of shipments to Asia.

Every drop in blueberries or avocados directly impacts harvest, packing, and transport wages in valleys like Ica and La Libertad. The treaty with Hong Kong, by opening space for processed products and less explored fruits, offers a way to sustain and expand formal agricultural employment, provided that diversification soon replaces the current concentration.