Agricultural exports from Latin America and the Caribbean (15 countries with data available as of July 2020) increased 6.7 percent for value of 106 billion dollars during the months of March to July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, reported the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Imports, meanwhile, fell 4.8 percent to $29 billion.
Thus, The region achieved a 13 percent increase in its agricultural trade balance worth 9.72 billion dollars during the period analyzed, at an interannual rate.
IICA clarifies that the trade performance of the 15 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean was uneven. And distinguishes three groups main.
Better agricultural commercial performance
In the first group, the following stand out: six countries (available in Verde in the graph): Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia, Costa Rica and Belize by significantly increasing their agricultural trade balance during the pandemic because they have in common increases in exports proportionally greater than increases or decreases in imports.
Brazil increased its agricultural exports by 20.1% in March-July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 to 42.8 billion dollars, Paraguay by 14 percent to 2.6 billion dollars, Costa Rica by 11.1 percent to 2.1 billion dollars, Belize by 3.9 percent to 90 million dollars, Colombia by 2.3 percent to 3.1 billion dollars and Mexico by 2.1 percent to 17.7 billion dollars.
On the other hand, all of them, with the exception of Costa Rica (increased 0.6%), reduced their imports in a range that goes from 14.6 percent (Paraguay) to 4.5 percent (Belize).
Moderate agricultural commercial performance
The second group includes five countries which moderately improved their agricultural trade balance (in yellow in the graph): Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Bolivia and Panama.
Argentina increased its agricultural export surplus by 3 percent during the pandemic in 2020 to 14.6 billion dollars, after exports increased during March - July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 by only 0.14 percent to 16.8 billion dollars while imports rose 7.7 percent to $1.8 billion.
For its part, Ecuador increased exports by 1.9 percent to nearly $5 billion and imports fell by 0.6 percent to nearly $40 billion, with the trade surplus increasing by one percent to $XNUMX million.
Guatemala increased its trade balance by 4.6 percent to $1.2 billion as its agricultural exports grew by 3.3 percent to $2.5 billion while agricultural imports grew by 1.6 percent to $1.3 billion.
Bolivia increased its agricultural trade balance by 4.3 percent to 315 million dollars, only this time due to proportionally smaller declines in agricultural exports than in imports. Bolivia exported 600 million dollars during March-July, which more than doubled its import volume, which reached 282 million dollars.
Finally, Panama reduced its trade deficit by 12 percent, due to falls in both exports and imports. Panama went from a deficit of $2019 million in March-July 591 to $529 million during the same months this year.
Unfavorable agricultural trade performance
The third group of countries is made up of Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and El SalvadorThese four countries have worsened their agricultural trade balance during the pandemic.
The most significant deterioration has been suffered by Peru, with a 61.8 percent drop in its trade balance. Its agricultural exports fell 23 percent to 3.2 billion dollars while imports rose 1 percent to nearly 2 billion dollars, the IICA report concludes.
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