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By Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) -Peruvian Agriculture Minister Angel Manero on Monday announced some $24 billion in largely public-private projects to improve irrigation in the Andean nation, as the government looks to expand its farmlands by some one million hectares (3,860 square miles).
The added farmland would be larger than the size of the island of Puerto Rico.
Manero told a press conference the funds would be spent over three to seven years to jumpstart some 22 new or stalled projects across Peru's coast, highlands and Amazon, and these should be awarded between 2025 and mid-2026.
The most important project would be the "Trasvase Maranon," he said, a project valued at some $7 billion that is set to carry water from the Maranon River to the Pacific coast and irrigate more than 300,000 hectares.
Manero added that the package would include the Chinecas project, valued at some $3.5 billion, on Peru's northern coast and Pampas Verdes project in the south, which is expected to cost some $4 billion.
Economy Minister Jose Salardi, speaking at the same press conference, said over 85% of the projects would be developed through public-private partnerships.
Peru's agricultural exports - mainly fruits such as blueberries - jumped over 20% last year to total some $12.8 billion, according to latest ministry figures, and the government is aiming for $40 billion by 2040, helped by planned shipments of beef and pork to China.
Regarding the effects of new tariff announcements in the U.S., Peru's central bank has said the impact on the South American nation should be limited as its fruit exports complement supplies that are not available in North America for seasonal reasons.
By 2050, the government aims for agricultural exports to overtake mining as the country's biggest economic driver. Peru is the world's third-largest supplier of copper.
In January, Manero flagged plans for building large-scale irrigation projects along the coast that should add 250,000 hectares of new farmland this year, and plans to add some 500,000 hectares by June 2026.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Sarah Morlandl; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Aurora Ellis)
