MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Three provinces concentrated 74% of Argentine US$ 78bn. exports in 2021

Buenos Aires province led with 36% of sales abroad; followed by Santa Fe, with 23%; and Córdoba, with 15.1%]

Three mainly agricultural provinces in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Córdoba accounted for 74% of the US$ 78 billion exported by the country in 2021, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).

Buenos Aires province led with 36% of sales abroad; followed by Santa Fe, with 23%; and Córdoba, with 15.1%. Patagonian provinces of Chubut, with 3.7 %, and Santa Cruz, 3%, ranked fourth and fifth respectively.

The agricultural province of Entre Ríos, neighboring with Uruguay represented 2.2% of export revenue, while Mendoza ranked seventh with 2.1% with its production of wines and fruits.

According to Indec, the geographical distribution of export turnover remained strongly correlated with the concentration of foreign trade industrial complexes.

Indec data shows that 30% of what was exported last year were products connected to the soybean industrial complex. In addition, nearly 11.9 % of earnings were associated with sales of corn, and, finally, the automotive sector accounted for 9.1% of sales abroad.

Of the US$ 78,000 million sold abroad, 6.7% came from the oil-petrochemical sector, taking Santa Cruz and Chubut together; 4.6% came from beef exports; 4.5% from the wheat complex; and 3.7% from gold and silver mining exports.

In 2021, 33 of a total of 40 industrial exporting complexes registered increases, unlike 2020 when most suffered year-on-year retractions due to international trade disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year peanuts, lemon, pears and apples, garlic, yerba mate, blueberries, and chickpea sales abroad year-on-year drops.

Overall Argentina exported US$ 77,934 million last year, a 42% hike over 2020, and imported US$ 63,184 million, a 49.2% over 2020.

Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, stated that “in the medium term, we can double exports,” and anticipated that Argentina will possibly US$100 billion in exports in the next two years.