Three provinces account for 74% of Argentina’s exports

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Córdoba accounted for 74% of Argentina’s export turnover of nearly US$78 billion, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).

According to the state agency Télam, Buenos Aires topped the list with 36% of foreign sales, followed by Santa Fe with 23% and Córdoba with 15.1%.

In fourth and fifth place were the oil and fishing provinces: Cubut, with 3.7% of the total, and Santa Cruz, with 3%.

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Seventh place went to the province of Mendoza, with 2.1%, largely due to wine and fruit production, while Entre Ríos is a decidedly agricultural province, with 2.2%.

All the provinces of the Northeast contributed a total of 1.6%, led by Misiones with 0.6%, Chaco with 0.5%, Corrientes with 0.4% and Formosa with 0.1%.

The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires contributed 0.4%, but this figure includes tradable goods and not services, such as financial or consulting services.

The geographic distribution of export sales was strongly correlated with the main complexes sold abroad.

According to Indec, the soy complex accounted for 30% of exports last year, corn for 11.9%, and the automotive sector was only third at 9.1%.

Of the US$78 billion sold abroad, the petroleum-petrochemicals sector, in which Santa Cruz and Chubut are important, accounted for 6.7%, beef exports for 4.6%, the wheat complex for 4.5%, and gold and silver mining exports for 3.7%.

Unlike in 2020, when most complexes ended with a year-on-year decline due to the slowdown in international trade caused by the coronavirus pandemic, in 2021, 33 of the 40 export complexes surveyed by Indec recorded an increase.

Only peanuts, lemons, pears and apples, garlic, yerba mate, blueberries and chickpeas recorded a decrease compared to the previous year.

Among the companies that maintained their position from the previous year, the dairy sector remained in tenth place, with foreign sales totaling US$1.164 billion and an increase of 16.2% compared to 2020.

According to previous Indec data, Argentina exported US$77.934 billion last year – a 42% increase compared to 2020 – and imported US$63.184 billion, 49.2% more than the previous year.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández assured that “in the medium term we can double exports” as “there is a possibility that we will approach US$100 billion.”

In his speech to the Legislative Assembly at the beginning of the 140th ordinary session, the president pointed out the need to “increase exports through higher production.”

“Our biggest challenge is to get out of the contradictory policy, that is, to produce for export and not for balance.