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food / travel

Peru’s Booming Export Product: Restaurants

Peruvian cuisine is appreciated around the world, but business leaders can whet their appetite on the country’s success at spreading its restaurant chains globally: from elsewhere in Latin America to the US and India.

Humala must work to regain his popular appeal with the masses
All the fixings at Bembos in Peru (naota)

*NEWSBITES

LIMA - Peru has a ways to go before it can enjoy the "emerging economic power" status attributed to neighbors Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Chile. But it has begun making an international name for itself in one crowd-pleasing industry: food.

Peruvian businessmen Arnold Wu and his brother, owners of Pardo's Chicken, opened their first foreign branch of the restaurant chain in 2002 – in relatively nearby Santiago, Chile. But they stretched quite a bit further for their second foreign location: Miami, Florida.

There are now 42 Pardo's Chicken restaurants in Peru, Chile and the United States. The Wu brothers don't plan to stop there. They are currently looking for partners in all three countries in order to keep expanding – and quickly. The short-term plan is to open 25 new branches.

Pardo's Chicken is by no means the only Peruvian fast food vendor to be making a go of it abroad. Other successful brands include China Wok, which has 44 branches outside of Peru; La Caravan; Bembos, the first Peruvian chain to break into the Indian market; and Embarcadero 41.

"Every year, more and more Peruvian restaurants open in foreign countries. The most popular business approach is with franchises," says Juan Carlos Mathews, a researcher at Peru's Universidad del Pacífico.

Among all of the Peruvian franchises, 23 have opened branches abroad, says Mathews. And of those, 95% are restaurants, which together pull in about $90 million per year.

Mathews predicts that by the end of this year, the number of Peruvian franchises operating abroad could reach 36, with annuals sales of more than $115 million.

According to Daniel Manrique, president of Peru's National Chamber of Franchises, the top destinations for Peruvian restaurants are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama. The United States is an "interesting" market, he says, since people there have a real appreciation for Peruvian cuisine. But so far the number of Peruvian franchises there is relatively small. Pardo's Chicken, which invites its English-speaking customers to "taste the Peruvian flavor!" is an exception in that regard.

"Exporting franchises to the United States is expensive," says Manrique. "It can cost between $25,000 and $40,000 a month just to rent a place. And in terms of infrastructure, you need to invest at least $1.5 million up front."

Read the full story in Spanish by María Cristina Pezet

Photo – naota

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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Future

Livestream Shopping Is Huge In China — Will It Fly Elsewhere?

Streaming video channels of people shopping has been booming in China, and is beginning to win over customers abroad as a cheap and cheerful way of selling products to millions of consumers glued to the screen.

A A female volunteer promotes spring tea products via on-line live streaming on a pretty mountain surrounded by tea plants.

In Beijing, selling spring tea products via on-line live streaming.

Xinhua / ZUMA
Gwendolyn Ledger

SANTIAGOTikTok, owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, has spent more than $500 million to break into online retailing. The app, best known for its short, comical videos, launched TikTok Shop in August, aiming to sell Chinese products in the U.S. and compete with other Chinese firms like Shein and Temu.

Tik Tok Shop will have three sections, including a live or livestream shopping channel, allowing users to buy while watching influencers promote a product.

This choice was strategic: in the past year, live shopping has become a significant trend in online retailing both in the U.S. and Latin America. While still an evolving technology, in principle, it promises good returns and lower costs.

Chilean Carlos O'Rian Herrera, co-founder of Fira Onlive, an online sales consultancy, told América Economía that live shopping has a much higher catchment rate than standard website retailing. If traditional e-commerce has a rate of one or two purchases per 100 visits to your site, live shopping can hike the ratio to 19%.

Live shopping has thrived in China and the recent purchases of shopping platforms in some Latin American countries suggests firms are taking an interest. In the United States, live shopping generated some $20 billion in sales revenues in 2022, according to consultants McKinsey. This constituted 2% of all online sales, but the firm believes the ratio may become 20% by 2026.

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