Exports of costa rican goods expected to increase 26% in the first half of 2021

• The increase is the highest in the first half of the last five years.
• All regions of the world showed a positive performance.
• Exports of services in the first quarter of the year reached $ 1,908 million.

San José, July 21, 2021. Costa Rica’s exports of goods reached $7,106 million in the first half of 2021, or $1,462 million more than in the same period of 2020, which means a growth of 26%.

This increase is the highest in the last five years in this period. In the I half of 2017 goods exports totaled $5.389 million, in 2018 $5.702 million, in 2019 $5.770 million and in 2020 $5.644 million, reflecting a drop due to the effects of the pandemic.

At the export sector level, most of them have double-digit growth. Precision and medical equipment continues to be the most important for the country with a share of 35% and a growth of 46% in the first half of the year. The food industry grew by 21%, chemical-pharmaceutical by 15%, electrical and electronics by 40%, metal-mechanics by 56% and plastics by 28%.

The agricultural sector shows signs of recovery with a 5% growth; however, the livestock and fishing sector, one of the most affected by the pandemic, still shows a 4% drop in the first half of the year.

“These results of exports of goods in the first half of the year fill us with optimism. Although we still have challenges, such as in livestock and fisheries, we are redoubling our efforts so that the recovery also reaches this sector. On the other hand, we highlight the effort and resilience of our agricultural sector, a sector that has reaped many achievements and positioning for the country, and that today we can see that it is beginning its recovery. We celebrate that product such as pineapple (+$42 million), frozen fruit (+$16 million), ornamental plants (+$13 million), mango (+$2 million), chayote (+$2 million), bananas (+$2 million) and papaya (+$0.8 million) are growing in international markets”, said the Minister of Foreign Trade and President of the Board of Directors of PROCOMER, Andrés Valenciano.

Meanwhile, Pedro Beirute, General Manager of PROCOMER, pointed out the importance of the country having a diversified exportable offer. “When analyzing the 10 products with the highest growth in this period, we see that there is representation from most export sectors, which indicates that the path of diversification of the offer is the right one. In this list we find medical devices – Costa Rica’s main export product -, syrups for soft drinks, electrical wires, pineapple, iron or steel bars, tires, glass containers, electrical materials, fruit juices and concentrates, and palm oil,” he said.

In terms of export destinations, there is again an increase in all regions of the world. North America grew by 27%, Central America by 26%, the Caribbean by 33%, South America by 55%, Europe by 20% and Asia by 25%.

Exports of services I quarter 2021

Exports of services showed a 34% drop in the first quarter of 2021 since the travel sector has not yet been able to recover from the pandemic. In total, the sector exported $1,908 million in this period, which is $993 million less than in the first quarter of 2020. However, when analyzing the data without travel, there is a 1% growth.

According to PROCOMER’s analysis, on average in the first quarter of the last three years, the other business subsector has had an average annual growth of 8%, while information technology, information and telecommunications has grown by 11%, highlighting that these two subsectors are high in knowledge and skilled labor.

In the same period of analysis, travel had a drop of 60% (due to the crisis caused by Covid 19), transportation -5%, transformation services -1%, financial services +3%, maintenance and repair -1% and other services -14%.