Costa Rica’s exports recover 11 % in the first quarter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Costa Rica’s exports of goods during the first quarter of 2021 reached US$3.34 billion, a growth of 11 % compared to the same period last year, an official source reported Tuesday.

Costa Rica’s Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) revealed that this translated into US$322 million more in goods exports than the first quarter of last year when US$3.018 billion were exported.

“Thanks to a wide exportable offer of almost 4,200 products, an important diversification of markets, more than 150 in 2020, and the resilience of the export sector, today we can see this recovery,” said the Minister of Foreign Trade, Andres Valenciano.

He added that there are still “important challenges in the agricultural, livestock and fishing sectors, as well as in services, sectors for which we will work in 2021 to bring them to recovery”.

Data from the promoter indicate that there is growth in the precision and medical equipment (20%), food industry (14%), electrical and electronics (19%), metal-mechanics (29%), and plastics (14%) sectors.

Besides, the rubber sector, which had been falling, closed the first quarter with a 4 % increase in exports.

However, two sectors have not yet achieved the desired recovery. Exports of agricultural goods closed the first quarter of 2021 with a drop of 3 %, while in livestock and fisheries it was 5 %.

Both sectors show smaller drops than those reported in the first two-month report when both decreases were 9 %.

“Despite a very difficult 2020 due to the crisis that brought us the pandemic, from September last year we began to have positive numbers, and we managed to close the year with a 2 % growth in exports of goods. This beginning of the year, we are optimistic because the growth continues,” said the general manager of Procomer, Pedro Beirute.

However, he added: “We are aware that we still have to take this recovery to the sectors that are still affected.”

In export markets, all destination regions are growing: North America, the main destination for Costa Rican exports, had a growth of 11 %, while Europe, the second most important market, grew by 6 %.

Central America had an increase of 10%, Asia (12%), the Caribbean (24%), and South America (25%).

SERVICES EXPORTS

The services sector has been one of the hardest hit by the crisis caused by the pandemic. At the close of 2020, this sector recorded a drop of 29 %, that is, it exported 2,759 million dollars less than in 2019, reaching a figure of 6,832 million dollars, according to year-end data for this sector published today.

Excluding the travel (tourism) category, the most affected by countries’ mobility restrictions and border closures due to covid-19, the drop is 2%.

The computer, information, and telecommunication subsector had a growth of 5 % compared to 2019. However, the other areas had dropped, as is the case of travel (40 %), transportation (25 %), transformation services (3 %), maintenance and repair (5 %), and financial services (3 %).