The number of exporting companies Peruvian companies reached 4,186 in the first two months of the year, the highest historical figure in that period, achieving an increase of 7.4% (287 new firms) compared to the same period in 2021 (3,899), reported the Center for Economic Research and Global Business of the Cien-Adex Exporters Association.
The union indicated that the increase was due to the recovery of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), mainly from the traditional and various mining subsectors, which offset the slight reduction in large companies.
According to the Cien-Adex report, in the first two months microenterprises (3,090) represented 73.8% of the total, small (924) 22.1%, medium-sized (36) 0.9% and large (136) 3.2 %, with which micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) concentrated 96.8% of all exporting units.
By shipments
In US$ FOB amounts, it was observed that 87.7% of what was shipped abroad was in charge of large companies, followed by small (9.2%), medium-sized (1.8%) and micro-enterprises (1.3%). Despite the fact that MSMEs achieved a participation of 96.8% of the total, they only concentrated 12.3% of the exported value, which reflects their high atomization, putting their permanence in the foreign market at risk, the report indicated.
By sectors, the highest number corresponded to agribusiness (1,272), followed by chemicals (627), miscellaneous (618), metalworking (615), clothing (577), traditional mining (334), textiles (243), non-metallic mining (208), traditional agriculture (191), iron and steel (188), fishing and aquaculture (182), wood (99), among others.
Meanwhile, the items that saw a reduction in the stock of companies were chemicals (-23), clothing (-15), iron and steel (-13), fishing and aquaculture (-11), hydrocarbons (-5) and traditional fishing (- 4).
Likewise, as of February 2022, those that exported from a single productive sector predominated (82.9% of the total), in two sectors they were 11.8%, in three 3.5% and in 4 or more only 1.8%.
In relation to the products, 53.7% of the companies (2,249) dispatched a single product, which evidenced its fragility in the face of any external impact of the market, 34% (1,424) between 2 and 5, 6.5% (270) between 6 to 9 products, and only 5.8% (243) achieved high diversification with a portfolio of 10 or more items.
At the country level, 2,703 firms (64.6% of the total) had a single destination market, the US being the most important. In contrast, 146 (3.5%) arrived with their products in 10 or more nations.
If only companies that have a single destination and export a single product are considered, the number rises to 1,324. These are the most vulnerable to possible changes in trade policies. In this group, 73.6% were microenterprises, 21.1% small, 4.2% large, and 1.2% medium.
Regions
According to the report, Lima concentrated the largest number of exporting companies (2,446), followed by Piura (402) and Callao (279).
In contrast, Apurímac was the region with the lowest number (6). Lima, Puno and Junín had the largest increase in the number of signatures with 121, 93 and 55 additional ones, respectively.
