Bolivia breaks historical record in exports in the first quarter of 2022

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the first quarter of 2022, Bolivia reached a historical record in terms of exports, whose value reached US$4.278 billion, according to the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration, Benjamín Blanco.

In this context, Blanco commented that “we are very happy with this information compiled by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) regarding the exports that our country has presented; we have broken historical records reaching US$4.278 billion dollars in exports as of April this year”.

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“Our best year was 2014, where the prices of hydrocarbons and minerals were high, reaching between January and April US$4.228 billion; now we have surpassed that figure and it is the highest record in the first four months of the year that we have registered in the entire history of our country”, he added.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), total exports to April 2022 show an increase of 33%, a figure higher by US$1.069 billion than that registered in the same period of 2021.

Based on what was reported, this behavior would be explained by the positive variations registered by all economic activities, these being agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing with 79.6%; hydrocarbon extraction with 33.7%; mineral extraction with 16% and manufacturing industry with 40.2%.

“This record is the result of work carried out in many areas, it is the result of the development of the productive sector and the policy of import substitution and incentives for the national productive apparatus,” said the vice minister.

In addition, the Bolivian authority detailed that most of the exports (51%) correspond to the manufacturing sector, such as oilseeds, industrial products, sunflower derivatives, bananas, carpentry, wood products, agricultural products, jewelry, metallic gold, among others.

“In terms of government policies, we must highlight the incentives to the productive apparatus, such as credits aimed at import substitution, managing to reduce food imports by 33 percent, such as tomatoes, rice, powdered milk, among others”, pondered the vice minister.