Colombian exports: what should be improved and strengthened

Colombian exports have an important challenge: their diversification. A host of governments have passed through this task and although progress has been made, there is still a long way to go. Like his predecessors, Gustavo Petro’s government will also bet on the pluralization of foreign sales, however, given the conviction of his speech to replace exports of mining-energy products, the measuring stick is higher.

(See: Country Trade Deficit: July 2022, Lowest Since 2017.)

“It is not a new issue, we have been working for this purpose for years, which is to work on those products that can generate added value in the international market.”, said Andrés Mauricio Castro, Dean of International Business at the Universidad Piloto de Colombia.

For Castro, over the years values ​​and dynamism have indeed increased in some sectors, “but it has not been seen that we have a portfolio that is based on other products that do not depend on mining-energy”.

(See: In seven months, the trade deficit was reduced by US$628.2 million).

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, exports of non-mining energy goods reached a value of US$18,186 million in 2021, an amount less than half of the total exported of US$41,224 million. Last year, foreign sales of these goods grew 24.5% compared to 2020, and 18.8% compared to 2019.

Now, for the current year, the performance of exports of non-mining energy goods set a record in the first semester. Data from the Ministry of Commerce pointed to 38.4% of the total exported in this period for US$28,637.6 million, that is, US$11,008.5 million.

(See: The challenge is to exceed exports by US$60,000 million this year).

When making the comparison between the periods, it stands out that these external sales grew by 34.2% versus the first 6 months of 2021 and 43.8% compared to the same period of 2019.

It still remains to wait what will be the lines for which he will bet the Government in this new initiative to diversify exports. For now, there seems to be good harmony with the sector with “a lot of dialogue and participation”, as Javier Díaz, president of Analdex, mentioned to this newspaper in a recent interview.

(See: Antioquia, Bogotá and Cesar, the regions that export the most).

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