How Peru managed to transform one of the world’s driest deserts into a major food production center

A man sits and a woman stands next to two towers of fruit crates on a farm in Peru. — caption, Very dry regions such as Ica have developed into large centers of agricultural production.

- Author, Guillermo D. Olmo
- Author title, BBC News World
December 4, 2025

The vast desert plains of Peru’s Ica region have been filled with extensive blueberry and other fruit-growing areas in recent decades.

Until the 1990s, it was difficult to imagine that this area of Peru’s coastal desert, where at first glance one sees little more than dust and sea, could become a major center of agricultural production.

But this has happened not only here, but in most parts of the Peruvian desert coast, where large plantations of non-traditional fruits such as asparagus, mangoes, blueberries or avocados (or avocados as they are called in Peru) have proliferated here.

The vast strip that traverses the country parallel to the waves of the Pacific and the Andean heights has become a vast orchard and the epicenter of a thriving agricultural export industry.

According to Peru’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation, Peru’s agricultural exports increased by an average of 11% annually between 2010 and 2024, reaching a record $9,185 million in 2024.

In recent years, Peru has become the world’s largest exporter of table grapes and blueberries, a fruit that was barely grown in the country before 2008, and its ability to produce on a large scale during the seasons when this is most difficult in the Northern Hemisphere has made it one of the major agricultural export powers and major suppliers to the United States, Europe, China and elsewhere.

But what consequences does that have? Who benefits? Is the Peruvian agricultural export boom sustainable?

How it all began

The process that would lead to the development of Peru’s agricultural export industry began in the 1990s, when the government of then-President Alberto Fujimori promoted deep liberalization reforms to reactivate a country hit by years of economic crisis and hyperinflation.

Close-up of a blueberry plant. One hand holds her. — caption, Within a few years, Peru has become the largest blueberry exporter in the world.

“The foundation was laid by reducing tariff barriers, encouraging foreign investment in Peru and reducing administrative costs for companies; the aim was to promote sectors with export potential,” César Huaroto, an economist at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, told BBC Mundo.

“At first attention was focused on the mining sector, but by the end of the century an economic elite appeared that recognized the potential of the agricultural export sector.”

But more favorable laws or intentions were not enough.

Large-scale agriculture in Peru has traditionally faced obstacles such as the low fertility of the soils of the Amazon rainforest and the harsh orography of the Andean Mountains.

Ana Sabogal, an expert in plant ecology and anthropogenic changes in ecosystems at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told BBC Mundo that “private investments by large farmers, who are less risk-averse than small ones, have facilitated technological innovations such as drip irrigation and the development of irrigation projects.”

Solving the problem of water scarcity in the desert made it possible to start cultivation in an area where agriculture was not traditionally considered, taking advantage of the special climatic conditions that make it what experts call a “natural greenhouse”.

“The area had no water, but with water it became a very fertile land,” Huaroto says.

All of this, along with genetic innovations such as that which enabled the local cultivation of blueberries, allowed Peru to incorporate large swaths of its coastal desert into its arable land, which Sabogal estimates increased by around 30%.

“It was a surprising and enormous increase in the agricultural economy,” summarizes the expert.

Today, regions such as Ica or North Piura have become major centers of agricultural production and agricultural exports have become one of the drivers of the Peruvian economy.

A man farms the land in the Peruvian countryside. — caption, The agricultural export boom has made water and labor more expensive for small farmers.

What were the consequences?

According to the ADEX Exporters Association, agricultural exports accounted for 4.6% of Peru’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024, while they were only 1.3% in 2020.

The economic and environmental impacts were remarkable and ambivalent.

Its supporters emphasize that it has brought economic benefits, but critics point to its environmental costs, such as high water consumption in areas where water is scarce and the population has no security of supply.

Economist César Huaroto led a study assessing the agricultural export boom in coastal Peru.

“We found, among other things, that the agri-export industry has acted as a booster for the local economy, increasing the level of quality jobs in large areas where informality was prevalent and increasing the average income of workers,” he said.

Even if not everyone benefits from it equally.

“Small independent farmers have a harder time finding workers because salaries are higher and they also have a harder time getting the water their fields need.”

In fact, agricultural exports appear to be pushing traditional ways of working in the fields into the background and changing the social and property structure in large parts of Peru.

“Many small landowners see that their fields are no longer profitable, so they sell their fields to large companies,” says Huaroto.

However, according to the same economist, “many small farmers were also happy because the agricultural industry had provided work for their family members.”

The water problem

In recent years, the usefulness of the agricultural export business for the country has been increasingly questioned.

But the main source of criticism is water.

“Given the water shortage, with a significant portion of the Peruvian population without water at home, the debate surrounding the agricultural export industry has become very lively,” says Huaroto.

Local activist Rosario Huayanca told BBC Mundo that “there is a dispute over water in Ica because there is not enough for everyone.”

A woman next to buckets of water on a dirt road in Peru. — caption, Critics point out that the agricultural export industry uses a lot of water in a country where part of the population does not have access to it.

In this arid region, the issue of water has been controversial for some time.

Since it hardly rains in Ica, much of the water is obtained underground.

While many human settlements make do with what arrives in tankers and must store it to meet their needs, those harvested for agricultural exports are guaranteed what they need through wells on their farms and priority access to irrigation water supplied from the neighboring Huancavelica region.

“It is supposedly forbidden to dig new wells, but when officials from the National Water Authority (ANA) come to inspect the major exporters, they deny them access on the grounds that it is private property,” denounces Huayanca.

The National Water Authority in 2011 introduced a “comprehensive monitoring and control process” of the use of the underground aquifer that supplies much of Ica’s water, given the “looming problem of overexploitation of groundwater, which is leading to a continuous decline in the region’s water table”.

But the problem appears to persist as local smallholders see signs that the aquifer is being depleted.

“It used to be enough to dig five meters, but now you have to go up to 100 meters deep for the water to appear,” says Huayanca.

“Small farmers complain that they have to pay high amounts for water, while large farms have reservoirs and large pools that they fill and then optimize the water with engineered irrigation systems,” says Huayanca.

BBC Mundo unsuccessfully requested comments from the ANA and Peru’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation.

Groups of people pick fruit on a Peruvian farm. — caption, Regions such as Ica or North Piura have developed into large centers of agricultural production.

This region grows the grapes that make the famous pisco, the brandy whose fame has become a source of national pride for Peruvians, but even that is being questioned today.

“There are people who criticize that grapes are basically water with sugar and when you export grapes and their derivatives, you are exporting water,” says Sabogal.

In Ica, the challenge is to make the thriving agricultural export business sustainable in harmony with the environment and the needs of the population.

“Every time there is an election, this issue is talked about, but there are never solutions. It is necessary to clarify how to make Ica’s economy sustainable in the long term, because if there is no water, the economy will collapse,” asks Huayanca.

In reality, the challenge affects the entire agricultural exporting country of Peru.

“The current situation is not sustainable in the long term. It is very good that there is an agricultural export industry because it generates income and foreign exchange, but as long as the required amount of water is provided for the population and ecosystems,” says Sabogal.