Although exports have been record, there are 25% fewer exporting companies than in 2011

Argentine exports in the first half of the year represented a record $ 44.377 million and reached the highest level since 2013, Cecilia Todesca Bocco, secretary for international trade, said Wednesday morning in her first meeting with the journalists. year ago, and in which she unleashed the commercial tools of the Farnesina to increase exports and attract investments.

The foreign ministry ensures that 2022 closes with exports of goods and services at a record close to 100,000 million dollars, with the possibility of exceeding the maximum of 2011 when 97,477 million dollars were reached.

The figure represents 12% more than the number reached in 2011. However, as regards the number of exporting companies, the figure is still 25% less than in the year after which they started to decline, for a series of regional contractions but also due to the rigor of Argentine trade policy, with controls on imports and exports, exchange traps and more.

Despite these numbers, however, the companies that export went from 12,800 in 2011 to 9,600 at the end of 20221, losing a figure of 3,200 companies that exported and generated work and foreign currency in the country. In short, in the last eleven years25% of the companies that exported to Argentina during the 11 years were lost in Argentina

Regarding the export record, Todesca told reporters on Wednesday that although there was a “price effect” due to the increase in the value of primary goodsexpansion has transcended that sector and quantities have also been at an all-time high.

The numbers of the sector can be read like this: sales of manufactured goods of industrial origin (MOI) grew by 6% in quantity compared to the same period of 2021 and by 3.8% compared to 2019, for a total of 11,088 million dollars, the highest value since 2013, said the official, accompanied by Guillermo Merediz, who will join the Foreign Ministry as Undersecretary for Trade and Investment Promotion after working at the Ministry of Production with former Minister Matías Kulfas

Among the goods considered “protagonists” are vehicles with 140,049 cars and light commercial vehicles exported, 29.62% more than in the same period of 2019; and pharmaceuticals with a year-over-year increase of 27% – the highest level in the last 12 years – and more than 50% compared to 2019.

“In this rather difficult international context, Argentina had a very good second quarter with growth led by consumption and investments, with total economic activity 5.1% higher than the average of 2019 and a sector that is at a 14% higher than in 2019, Todesca Bocco remarked, after which he acknowledged that “there was a regressive effect on income” following the war and the pandemic.

In explaining the Farnesina’s management line, the official considered that industrial policy has “three legs”.

To the “development and strengthening of the internal market” and to the “aggregation of science and technology”, Todesca Bocco emphasized the “internationalization of production” and held that it is not mutually exclusive with the national market.

“For us, the outside is anchored inside,” he noted.