SR. MIGUEL NICOLINI - CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER VIRÚ

Press Tribune: In 2001 you exported 2% of your products to the USA. Today you are exporting more than 50 % of your production to the United States, so how can you explain your growth from 2% to 50 % in such short period of time?

Mr Nicolini: There are mainly two reasons. One was the diversification that the company took after 1999 with the artichokes and the second reason is the contact that we made with General Mills for producing exclusively the green giant asparagus for the USA. We have been exporting for almost 13 years and our main market was concentrated in Europe and with only one product, our white asparagus. We experienced the very hard dollar exchange against the euro at 0.83 and when that happened we started to think about going to the US market. Therefore we needed to have products and customer so we found that the artichokes could be very competitive here in Peru and could be a good source for growth.

Press Tribune: Right now you are producing artichokes, asparagus and peppers, are you planning to develop more products?

Mr Nicolini: We are mainly planning to stay with these 3 main products; we are trying to produce other products with more value added but always with the same raw material, those being peppers, artichokes and asparagus.

Press Tribune: Recently Virú over passed Camposol as the main asparagus exporter in Peru. What differences you from the other Peruvian company in the business, what can you say regarding this performance?

Mr Nicolini: I think Virú is much a smaller company that Camposol adding all the business together but our main success until now is that we are focused on one product that is the canned vegetables. We don't do fresh, we don't do any other fruits, and we only do those 3 mentioned vegetables in can. Logistic, suppliers, everything are mainly the same and customers too, therefore we try to maximize our efforts to lead the sector.

Press Tribune: The ATPDEA (The Andean Trade Partnership and Drug Eradication Act) has recently been extended for 8 months, it is very good news for your industry but what are your expectations for the FTA?

Mr Nicolini: Of course we need the FTA. Without the FTA we could suffer a lot in terms of the artichokes and for the peppers, for the asparagus not so much, because Peru can be much more competitive and we are the main source for the customers, we can increase the price to compete with Chile, or with Spain that have also produce artichokes. Regarding the ATPDEA, last December, the customers were more concerned, this month nobody called me to ask me what is going to happen. Our customers assumed that everything would be fine. I think that the government did a very good job to extend this agreement with the USA.

Press Tribune: What do you think about Peru being one of the best choices to invest right now?

Mr Nicolini: I think that is great for us; we need much more investment for example in farming. Peru needs a lot of investment to change all the very old farming practices. I don't think that Peru is developing yet five percent of its farming area, because a very small area is influenced by the new technology of knowledge and we need to have a lot of investments in this area. We think we should be the source for Europe because we have a Mediterranean weather and very competitive cost.

Press Tribune: What do you think about ethanol, how will it affect Peru, how will it affect your sector?

Mr Nicolini: That will depends of the price of sugar: ethanol is related with the price of sugar here in Peru so if the price of sugar is high the ethanol is not going to increase very much. It also depends on the government, the remove of taxes, the selective tax that is now in charge. I think those are the two main issues for the success of the ethanol. As far as we are concerned, the ethanol is not going to impact so much on our business because what we try to do is to farm in southern areas from Trujillo to the south and the ethanol potential is more located from Trujillo to the north.

Press Tribune: What are your plans of investment for the years to come?

Mr Nicolini: Virú is always investing all the profits during the year and that's allowing the company to grow and I think we are going to keep investing in the sector because we need to serve our customers. We have customers that are very large and they always demand products from us and we are planning to invest perhaps not as much as we did in the past but with the intention to always grow and invest in the sector. We are focusing on that sector.

Press Tribune: How would you define your management style?

Mr Nicolini: Over the past 3 years we started reorganizing Virú for the growth of the company and we sat up a professional management team. That professional management team gives much better opportunities to the company to grow. Today we have a general manager and a team of management, which allow me to concentrate my efforts on the farming and the marketing side with a particular focus on our relations with our customer.

Press Tribune: Since the creation of Viru in 1994, what gives you the most satisfaction?

Mr Nicolini: We participated to the development of the farming sector. I think Viru has done three important reforms during these 13 years. One is created riches for the area where we are, we started with 87 employees and now we are almost 5000. The other thing is that Viru has been a pioneer in producing artichokes on a large scale and that is very important for the development of the country. Peru has always been focused to cultivated artichokes on the highlands and we decided to expand it. We have been a good company to promote and to create more farming opportunities for other companies and also for us. Last but not least, we have put the name of Peru on the best table of the world like Green Giant or Carrot Food. We produce more than 120 million units of can in Peru, and not other industry in Peru does that.