Peru, the new Mecca of the cuisine of Latin America

Until recently, most tourists going to Peru just wanted to go to Cusco and from there then go to Machu Picchu. Currently, about 75,000 tourists visit Lima (Peru's capital) every year to enjoy its food, with an average expenditure of $1,250 per person. Lima not only has good restaurants, but there are 52 private cooking schools. Peru is one of the few countries in Latin America (the other two are Brazil and Mexico) which has one of the branches of the cooking school Le Cordon Bleu from France.

From the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world in 2014, according to a William Reed Media compilation, the number 15 position corresponds to Restaurant Central (chef Virgilio Martínez) and No. 18 to the restaurant A & G (Astrid y Gastón, chefs Diego Muñoz and Gastón Acurio), both in Lima. In addition, position 95 on the list of the 100 best restaurants in the world corresponds to the restaurant Malabar, also in Lima. On the other hand, of the 50 best restaurants in Latin America, six of the top twenty are in Lima.

Traditionally, Peru has been an exporter of raw materials. From Potosi silver in colonial times (currently in Bolivia), through guano (fertilizer from seabird excrements) and saltpeter (sodium nitrate) in the nineteenth century and then oil fish and fishmeal, gold and copper. Other important minerals in Peru are bismuth, tin, molybdenum, lead and zinc. However, the Peruvian cuisine uses the natural resources of the country and gives them added value. Currently, tourism due to Peruvian cuisine contributes only 3% of Peru's GDP, but it is the fastest growing sector of the economy.

Much of the rise and fame of Peruvian cuisine is owed to chef Gaston Acurio. The chef and entrepreneur Acurio, in the last two decades has created 37 restaurants in 11 countries, with annual sales exceeding US $100 million, and where each shows a different type of Peruvian food, from ceviche to the Italian-Peruvian fusion. One of the projects of Acurio, in 2014, has been moving his famous restaurant A&G to a new place, the Moreyra House, a colonial mansion from the seventeenth century located in San Isidro, the financial district of Lima. There was an investment of US $6 million for the restoration and adaptation of Moreyra House as a restaurant. It features a garden where cooks grow herbs to be used in cooking.

Perhaps the most emblematic dish of Peruvian cuisine is ceviche (from Quechua "siwich") a pre-Columbian dish consisting of chunks of raw fish with lemon juice, onion (better if red onion), hot pepper and salt (the original indigenous dish was shellfish with chili and salt). Other traditional dishes include anticuchos (beef heart skewers served with potatoes), causa (mashed yellow potatoes with lemon, hot pepper, lettuce, corn, fresh cheese, boiled eggs, avocado and black olives. It can also be filled with chicken or tuna) and ocopa (a green sauce whose main ingredients are mirasol pepper and huancatay, but also has fresh cheese, peanuts and crushed crackers. Served over boiled potatoes and garnished with slices of boiled egg). Indeed, potato is the key ingredient of Peruvian cuisine. There are over 3000 varieties of potatoes in Peru.

In addition to the indigenous origin cuisine and Creole cuisine, there are other styles of cuisine in Peru. Thus we have, the Italian-Peruvian cuisine, the Chifa (Peruvian-Cantonese fusion) cuisine, the Nikkei (Peruvian-Japanese fusion) cuisine, the cuisine of Arequipa (rich in shrimp), the northern cuisine (based on wildfowl) the novo-Andean cuisine (modern dishes with ingredients from the Andes) and Amazonian cuisine (with a variety of fruits, roots, leaves and river fish).

Finally, we will mention that there are also typical drinks of Peru. In addition to the purple corn chicha and coca tea, Peru produces pisco (a strong liquor of grapes) with which the famous cocktail called Pisco Sour is made, one of the favorites of Humphrey Bogart.

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The Business of Popcorn Maize

May 21, 2013. Argentina is the world's largest exporter of the grain for popcorn, a variety that yields 50 percent more than traditional corn and whose price grew 53 percent in 2012.

In 2012, with over 20 million tons, Brazil replaced Argentina (16.7 million) of the second place in the world ranking of corn exporters, according to the Brazilian consulting firm Informa Economics FNP. However, there is a niche in which Argentina is at the top: the pisingallo (as it is called in Argentina), a variety used for making popcorn, whose price rose 53 percent to U.S. $ 850 a ton, last year.

While domestic consumption is very low, this is increased by their presence in theaters and is associated with an increased consumption of beer, according to a report by the Argentine Corn Association, composed of companies that make up the various links in the chain of production. However, 97 percent of what is produced in the country is exported.

"This is a business that, locally, began in 1989 and, between 1998 and 2000, Argentina became the leading exporter," explained from the Chamber of Processors and Exporters of Pisingallo Corn (Campi, its acronym in Spanish). Globally, the offer is close to 400,000 tons, considering normal crops in terms of production and climate in producing countries. Argentina sells 230,000 tons per year, followed by the United States (120,000). Behind are, France, South Africa and Hungary. In Argentina, there are about 50 exporters, who shipped more than 100 destinations. The sales unit is the container, whose load depends on the type of bag (from ten kilos to one ton).

The average load per container is 25 tons in bags of 50 pounds, with own or third party brands, industry spokesmen explained. The average sale, according to a participant, is two to three containers. "As a global leader, Argentina participates in the creation of prices," describes one of the three largest exporters. He adds that the price of grain is very sensitive to several factors. The most critical is the volume of local production. The surface for planting, he adds, should not exceed 70,000 hectares throughout the country, as the average yield is 3.8 tons per hectare and almost all the production is exported.

"In a little niche market like pisingallo, planting should be intelligent. It must produce what the market needs and no more, both in quality and quantity," he says. In this regard, the pisingallo competes for land with conventional corn, as they have the same agronomic properties. Its yield is, on average, a half. But its value, normally, exceeds between 1.8 and 2 times that of common corn.

"The price paid to the producer can be set by a fixed amount or a percentage (between 45 and 50) of the FOB value of exports. Or a mix of fixed price and participation on the FOB," they comment from Campi, entity comprising 12 companies: Agro Uranga, Anka, Alberto Marchionni, Alemar, Alicampo, Conagra Snack Foods, Curcija, Pop Argentina, Pop Company, Reliance Export, Snack Crops and Gregorio, and, Numo and Noel Werthein, a company that founded the empire that, among other assets, now controls Telecom. Among Snack Crops, Pop Argentina and Werthein, account for almost 70 percent of exports, according to industry sources.

Sensitive Grain

The climate factor is also fundamental. "In a document, they compared the results of pisingallo and common corn in the fields in which the two crops were planted. One can see that pisingallo depends much more on the environment than conventional corn and, as the conditions for growing are worsened, yield differences are increased. Conventional corn has relatively better performance in adverse conditions. But when the climatic environment improves, the pisingallo yield can exceed 50 percent that of a common corn," says Louis Miceli, advisor at CREA Herrera Vegas, a rural consortium for agricultural experimentation in the region of Salta.

In the production cycle 2011/12, whose harvest was conducted between March and May last year, the Argentinean production of pisingallo suffered from an unprecedented drought, with very high temperatures. Campi estimated that weight losses were 50 percent compared to normal yields expected.

As a result, product FOB prices recorded a historic rise from U.S. $ 585 per ton in January to more than U.S. $ 900 in November. The increase is in contrast with the trading cycle 2010/11, when, by excess supply, according to the organization, were planted more than 90,000 hectares-, the price collapsed to U.S. $ 300. Unlike conventional corn, which is taxed 20 percent, pisingallo withholdings are 5 percent of the FOB value. It is not the only advantage.

"This product is very interesting to diversify risks, to get rid of traditional production and to seek comparative advantages," says Fabian Pereyra Iraola, a farmer from Hipólito Yrigoyen region (Salta). Pereyra Iraola stresses it is a market unhampered by the Government, is small, so its price doubles that of traditional corn- and it impacts on freight 50 percent less than conventional corn. "It's a crop with safe demand and less transportation costs. The ideal thing is to have some presence in the market and an open door to an exporter, which allows entering the business at the right time and not when there is oversupply affecting the price," he adds.

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Foreign investment in Latin America

"The region of Latin America and the Caribbean received in 2012 a new record amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of 173,361 million dollars," according to a report released Tuesday (5/14/2013) by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a technical agency of United Nations with headquarters in Santiago.

The positive figure recorded for the third consecutive year, encouraged the good momentum of the economies of Latin America.

In 2012, global FDI flows, which fell 13%, totaled 1.39 trillion, "barely higher than that recorded in 2010 (1.37 trillion), when the world economy was still affected by the financial crisis," according to ECLAC.

Investment figures in Latin America "are explained by the sustained economic growth of the region, high commodity prices and high investment returns associated with the exploitation of natural resources," said the agency in its report "The Foreign direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2012 ", presented in Santiago.

The result reflects the growing interest in natural resources, especially in South American countries such as Chile and Peru, as well as to domestic markets of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, where they have grown investments in telecommunications, trade and financial services.

Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2012 received a record foreign direct investment (FDI) of U.S. $ 173,361 million, 6.7% more than in 2011, more oriented to the extraction of natural resources and raw materials than productive tasks, according to ECLAC.

Brazil continued to be the largest recipient of FDI in the region, with a share of 41% of the total investment equivalent to 65,272 million, but with a drop of 2% from the previous year.

Peru, with investments of 12,240 million dollars, and Chile, with 30,323 million dollars (which became the second largest recipient in the region) are the countries where FDI grew the most in absolute terms (49% and 32% expansion , respectively). In Argentina, with investments of U.S. $ 12,551 million, the rate grew by 27%. In Venezuela, meanwhile, there was a drop of 15%, to 3,216 million dollars, while Colombia increased its flow by 18% to 15,823 million.

In Central America stand out increases in El Salvador (34%), Guatemala (18%), Costa Rica (5%), Honduras (4%) and Panama (10%), which remains the largest recipient in the subregion.

In Mexico, meanwhile, was recorded the most significant drop of 35% compared to 2011, with investments of U.S. $ 12,659 million, the lowest figure of FDI since 1999.

Mexico fell from third to fourth position in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2012, after Brazil, Chile and Colombia, said the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC).

The last time Mexico led the attraction of FDI in Latin America was in 2006. The following year it was surpassed by Brazil (since then it has remained at the top) and in 2011 was moved from the second position by Chile.

With the result, Mexico received only 7.3% of total entries of FDI in Latin America and the Caribbean, its worst performance since 1990.

"Mexico experienced a significant drop compared to 2011, which is explained largely by the IPO of 25% of the subsidiary of Banco Santander of Spain for 4,100 million dollars," said ECLAC.

United States and European Union continued during 2012 the main investors in Latin America, although "greatly increased the importance of the investments made by companies of Latin American countries, giving rise to 14% of total FDI attracted by the region," said ECLAC's report.

A high percentage of investments received has not been assigned to any national economy for the practice of transnational companies of taking their investments to subsidiaries in third countries, the agency warned.

On the other hand, direct investment from the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean abroad grew 17%, reaching 48,704 million dollars.

"This figure is 2% higher than the record high of 2010," ECLAC noted.

Mexico was the country of the region that invested the most abroad in 2012, with 25,597 million dollars, a record high. America Movil expanded into Europe, with an outlay of U.S. $ 4,483 million.

Mexico Group invested $ 134 million in its mining operations in Peru; Bimbo opened a plant in Brazil and another in Argentina, Gruma opened a factory in the United States, and Cinepolis announced the opening of 350 cinemas in Brazil, Colombia, United States and India.

Chilean companies invested 21,090 million abroad in 2012, while FDI flows abroad from Brazil were negative, for 2,821 million dollars.

For this year, the United Nations agency projected that FDI to the region will be located in a range between a decline of 3% and an increase of 7%.

Last April, ECLAC had estimated that Latin American economies will grow 3.5% in 2013, supported in part by a higher growth in Brazil and Argentina.

However, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Barcenas, warned that "we do not see clear indications of a significant contribution from FDI to the creation of new industries or the creation of high-tech activities, considering that one of the main challenges facing the region is a change in the productive structure."

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