The historic process of economic reactivation that the country experienced last year, which led to a rebound in gross domestic product at 10.6%was also reflected in the rise in the number of Colombian companies that exported their products and services.
It is worth noting that exporting is one of the most important commercial processes for a company, since it allows it to internationalize in a competitive global market.
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Thus, according to figures provided by the National Association of Foreign Trade (Analdex) to Portafolio, the number of exporting companies grew 8.04% in 2021 versus 2020, specifically, this means that last year 10,646 firms sold their products and services abroad versus the 9,854 that did so in 2020 of the pandemic.
In absolute terms, this is a growth of 792 vs. 2020reported the export union.
However, when disaggregated by values, some 363 companies reached external sales over US$10,000,000 FOB in 2021, representing 88% of the value of the country’s exports.
The denomination of the FOB value, or by its name in English of ‘free on board’, is that modality of foreign trade in which the seller must load the merchandise in the vessels arranged by him for that purpose. In addition, the buyer will be responsible for canceling the cost of security and freight of the merchandise.
On the other hand, companies with exports below this range participated in the remaining 12%, divided between 1,173 firms with external sales between US$1,000,000 FOB and US$10,000,000 FOB, and another 9,110 companies with exports below the US$1,000,000 FOB.
These data represent a considerable increase compared to the 2020 records. For this year, 9,854 participated in Colombian sales abroad. Of that group, 331 reached numbers higher than US$10,000,000 FOB; some 1,015 registered values between US$1,000,000 FOB and US$10,000,000 FOB, while the bulk of the total, 8,508 companies, added values to the export up to US$1,000,000 FOB.
“Basically what happened in 2020 is that due to the pandemic, many companies remained closed. In 2021, the reactivation begins and the number of companies begins to grow again,” Javier Díaz Molina, president of Analdex, told Portfolio.
Although a considerable improvement is observed in the 2020-2021 evaluation, according to Analdex figures, there is still a significant lag compared to the numbers obtained in 2019in a non-pandemic context.
In this way, in 2019 the number of exporting companies was 10,853, which when disaggregated is reflected in the fact that 335 companies were able to achieve sales abroad for more than US$10,000,000 FOB; while 1,349 reported income between US$1,000,000 FOB and US$10,000,000 FOB. The remaining 9,169 companies achieved sales of up to US$1,000,000 FOB.
Días Molina pointed out that “export growth is still very much supported by price growth, while the volume in many cases is still below what was recorded in 2019.”
Therefore, increasing the volume of exports is one of the keys to approaching -and surpassing- the records of 2019the time of the pre-pandemic. Although this does not seem so easy to achieve.
“It is difficult to marry a date in which the number of companies is exceeded, because the international logistics crisis, the invasion of Ukraine and the covid-zero policy (China) continue to affect international demand,” said the businessman from the foreign trade sector.
This is how 2022 goes
The document provided by Analdex also describes how the export dynamics of Colombian companies are in the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 2021.
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According to the text, in the first four months of the current year, 6,723 Colombian companies are marketing their products and services abroad.
Of this select group, 177 companies have made exports for more than US$10,000,000 FOB, while 692 have reported external sales between US$1,000,000 FOB and US$10,000,000 FOB.
The bulk of this select group concentrates 5,854 Colombian companies reporting foreign sales of up to US$1,000,000 FOB.
These numbers exceed those achieved in the same period in 2021.
The first change is the number of exporting companies. Last year you are they added 6,694that is, compared to the same period in 2022 (6,723), in one year 29 new Colombian companies have begun to export.
Now, in terms of sales, 155 of these companies reported sales to foreign countries of more than US$10,000,000 FOB.
On the other hand, some 642 companies reported exporting between US$1,000,000 FOB and US$10,000,000 FOB, while another 5,897, a figure higher than 2022 by 43 companies, recorded sales abroad of up to US$1,000. 000FOB.
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