Argentina: MSME exports in the year’s first half highest in 9 years

Exports of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) totaled US$6.6 billion in the first half of 2022, which meant the highest value in 9 years, an increase of 13% year-on-year and 25% compared to 2020, according to preliminary data from the Secretariat of Industry and Productive Development of Argentina.

In this way, the sales of MSMEs represented 15% of total exports in that period, which amounted to US$44.4 billion.

In this context, the Secretary of Industry and Productive Development, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, stated, “our priority is that while the economic variables stabilize, we sustain the level of activity and continue to promote the companies that export and change the country’s productive matrix”.

The main destinations of foreign shipments of Mypymes between January and June were Brazil (with values exceeding US$1.1 billion), the United States (over US$830 million), China (over US$780 million), Chile (more than US$530 million), the Netherlands (more than US$290 million), Uruguay (above US$250 million), and Spain (over US$210 million).

When differentiated by sectors, it was observed that Manufactures of Agricultural Origin (MOA) again topped sales after exceeding US$2.5 billion, an increase of 17% year-on-year for that period. In second place were Primary Products (PP), with shipments of more than US$2.3 billion, an increase of 9% year-on-year.

It was followed by Manufactures of Industrial Origin (MOI) with more than US$1.7 million (+9% year-on-year). Meanwhile, Fuels and Energy (S&E) grew the most in percentage terms, rising 167% over the same period of 2021.

In the half-year balance, May was the most outstanding month since shipments exceeded US$1.3 billion, 19% of total exports in the year’s first half. Thus, the amount traded in May increased 17% year-on-year and 38% compared to the same month of 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

The foreign sector ended the first half of 2022 with a robust expansion. Sales of Argentine products abroad totaled US$44.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.5% that allowed achieving the highest value in history for that period, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC).

With information from Portal Portuario