Colombia registered last February its best exports in that month of the last five years. This was stated this Wednesday by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) in the monthly presentation of the foreign sales report.
(Colombian exports grew 43% in February).
According to the report, for which the National Tax and Customs Directorate (Dian) also provides data, Colombian exports totaled US$4,203 million compared to the US$2,939 million obtained in the same month but in 2021.
This result was mostly explained by the 48.6% share of the fuel category, which grew 55.9% in this period and reached US$2,041.5 million.
It is important to note that last February, 14.7 million barrels of crude oil were exported, which represented a growth of 32.2% compared to that period in 2021.
On the other hand, they are followed, by contribution of participation, the category of agriculture, food and beverages (25.2%) that reached US$1,059.6 million, and manufactures (20.2%) up to US$848.6 million.
(Colombia seeks alternatives to imports from Russia).
Thus, last February of this year 2022, with sales of US$4,202.3 million, was the best month in the last five years, ahead of the same month in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Likewise, in the biennial comparison, that is, between February 2020 and 2022, the country’s external sales added a growth of 42.8%.
HOW 2022 PROGRESSES
With the February report, the most recent, the Dane also offers an X-ray of how the country’s exports are doing in the first two months of 2022. Thus, Colombian foreign sales totaled US$8,003.8 million and registered an increase of 44.2%, compared to the same period in 2021.
In this two-month period, the fuel group’s exports lead the statistics by segment with increases of 64.2% compared to the same period last year. The value of exports was US$4,153.7 million.
This behavior, says the Dane, is mainly explained by the growth in foreign sales of oil, oil products and related products (54.6%), an item that contributed 37.5 percentage points.
In addition to the leadership of fuels, exports of agricultural products, food and beverages grew 34.4%, while the manufacturing category rose 28.2%.
(‘Colombia has opportunities to take advantage of the war’: IDB).
The good numbers of the first two months of the year “they make us foresee that in 2022 we will end up with close to US$50,000 million, a figure that we have not seen since 2014”says José Roberto Concha, director of the Foreign Trade Office (Icecomex) of the Icesi University.
However, Andrés Mauricio Castro, dean of International Business at the Universidad Piloto de Colombia, pointed out that “What is noticeable is that exports continue to be concentrated in two basic products, excluding oil: thermal coal and coffee (…) We continue to depend heavily on crude oil as the main export item.”
In the two-month period, coal exports totaled US$1,340,402 million, a variation of 92.6% compared to the same period of the previous year when they totaled US$696,018 million.
Regarding external sales of coffee, between January and February 2022, these reached US$782,272 million, a growth of 33.9% compared to the same period in 2021, when the figure was US$584,111 million.
THE UNITED STATES CONTINUES AS THE MAIN MARKET
By destinations, the United States is the main market for Colombian exports in all comparative periods.
In the period between January and February 2022, the main world power was the country that received the highest percentage of national sales, with a 24.8% share; They followed him, in his order, Panama (13.6%), India (6.3%), Brazil (5%), China (4.4%), Turkey (4%) and Ecuador (3.7%).
“Despite the international logistics situation, Colombia continues to increase its exports to the United States. This is due to having tools such as the Free Trade Agreement that offers clear rules for business in addition to the geographical proximity between the two countries”, said María Claudia Lacouture, director of AmCham Colombia.
ROBERTO CASAS LUGO
