The soybean complex totaled foreign sales of US$ 23,841 million throughout 2021an increase of 60.4% year-on-year which established him as the main export sector of the countrywith 30.6% of the total.
In second place was the corn complex, with 11.9% of the total, with sales of US$9,295 million and a growth of 51.1% compared to 2020.
The numbers come from the Exporting Complexes indicator prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec), which classifies Argentina’s exports from the point of view of production chains.
On third place was located the automotive complexwhich in this way also replicated the 2020 ranking, explaining 9.1% of total sales, for US$ 7,100 million, with an increase of 64.8% compared to the previous year.
The fourth and fifth places were again occupied by the items petroleum-petrochemical (US$ 5,208 million), and bovine meat and leather (US$ 3,608 million), with year-on-year improvements of 42.3% and 7.1%, respectively.
Together, the five main items represented 62.9% of total shipments abroad.
In the sixth, seventh and eighth position were the wheat sectors (US$ 3,488 million and an increase of 41.2%), gold and silver (US$ 2,908 million and an increase of 22.9%) and fishing (US$ 1,990 million and growth of 15%).
The novelty with respect to 2020 occurred in ninth place in the ranking, where the sunflower came to occupy that position where the peanut complex was previously located.
In 2021, sunflower exports marked a phenomenal growth of 102.1% year-on-year (US$ 1,334 million).
Unlike 2020, when most of the complexes closed with year-on-year falls as a result of the brake on international trade generated by the coronavirus pandemic, in 2021 they registered increases in 33 of a total of 40 export complexes surveyed by the Indec.
Only the complexes of peanuts, lemon, pears and apples, garlic, yerba mate, blueberries, and chickpeas presented year-on-year falls.
Among those that maintained the position of the previous year, the dairy sector remained in tenth place, with total sales abroad of US$1,164 million and an increase of 16.2% compared to 2020.
According to previous data from Indec, last year Argentina exported a total of US$77,934 million -an increase of 42% compared to 2020- and imported for a value of US$63,184 million (49.2% more than in the previous exercise).
export destinations
In the case of soybeans, the main export destinations were India for US$ 3,394 million (an increase of 65.7% per year), China for US$ 2,393 million (an increase of 10.1%) and the Netherlands for US$ 1,691 million (increase of 176.3%).
Regarding corn, the main purchases were monopolized by Vietnam for US$ 1,525 million (increase of 23.9%), South Korea with US$ 1,168 million (increase of 171%) and Egypt for US$ 697 million (improvement of 9, two%).
In the automotive sector, sales to Brazil continued to be the main destination of the sector with a strong growth of 65.9% to US$ 4,780 million; followed by Chile and Peru with advances of 128% and 75.5%, respectively.
The United States, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates were the main partners for the oil-petrochemical hub, with year-on-year increases of 147.5%, 60.6% and 40.3%, respectively.
Lastly, China, Germany and Chile were the main destinations for bovine meat and hides, highlighting the growth of sales to the last of the 3 countries in the order of 20.9%.
In the measurement by sectors, the oilseed (which groups the complexes of soybeans, peanuts, flour, pellets, beans and soybean oil, biodiesel, sunflower and others) represented 33.9% of the country’s total exports, followed by the grain sector (17.9%), the automotive sector (9.1%) and the oil-petrochemical sector (6.7%).
