Agricultural Foreign Investment Governance in Peru

The objective of this chapter is to analyze the governance of foreign investment in Peru, with emphasis on its agricultural sector. The study reviews constitutional provisions, legislation, treaties, and jurisprudence, but emphasizes how stability mechanisms and institutional design shape investor expectations. The analysis explores constitutional limits on land ownership near border areas, expropriation rules, and labor and sanitary regulations, together with fiscal regimes that provide tax stability agreements and incentives. It also considers the central role of PROINVERSIÓN and specialized agencies in coordinating investment policy and supervising concessions. At the international level, Peru’s adherence to ICSID, the New York and Panama Conventions, and its extensive network of BITs and FTAs provide multiple avenues for investor protection. The findings suggest that Peru has emphasized contractual stability and international commitments as key tools to attract foreign capital. However, disputes over agrarian reform bonds, agricultural trade remedies, and regulatory enforcement reveal that constitutional safeguards, GMO restrictions, and community engagement requirements create distinct factors of uncertainty. Consequently, Peru presents an investment environment that is nominally receptive and anchored in international treaties, but rigorously circumscribed by social imperatives and constitutional limits that profoundly influence foreign investment in agriculture.