External sales to the Netherlands and Panama decreased, while exports to China increased.

According to a report released by the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia (DANE) and the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN), in March 2024 the country's external sales went to US$ 3.83 billion FOB, falling 14.2% compared to March 2023.

EXPORTS BY SECTOR

The outcome was mainly due to a 15.5% drop in foreign sales of the Oil and Extractive Industries Products group, a segment that had a 49.9% share of the total FOB export value.

The latter was mainly explained by falling sales of coal, coke and briquettes (-46.1%), which contributed 19.5 negative percentage points to the group's variation.

14.7 million barrels of crude oil were exported in the period, 0.04% more than the same period in 2023.

For their part, exports of the Manufacturing group reached US$ 766.7 million FOB, accounting for 20% of the total, and declining by 16% compared to March 2023.

This performance chiefly responded to the decrease in external sales of manufactured items, classified mainly according to material (-29.5%) and chemicals and related products (-15.7%), which together contributed 15.9 negative percentage points to the group's variation.

External sales of Agricultural Products, Food and Beverages also fell, to US$ 924.2 million FOB, 6.2% less than in March 2023. Their share in the total was 24.1%.

The behavior of the latter group was mainly explained by lower exports of unroasted coffee, decaffeinated or not (-18.8%) and palm oil and its fractions (-26.2%), which together contributed 7.3 negative percentage points to the group's variation.

Finally, there was a decrease in the exports of the Other Sectors group (-25.3%) which was mainly explained by the decrease of non-monetary Gold exports, which contributed 25.2 negative percentage points to the group's variation. The share of this group was 6% of total exports.

DESTINATION COUNTRIES

In March 2024, the United States was the main destination of Colombian exports with a share of 29.5% in the total FOB value exported. This country was followed by:

- Panama

- China

- India

- Mexico

- Netherlands

- Ecuador

Lower foreign sales to the Netherlands and Panama contributed -5.6 percentage points to the total variation in exports (-14.2%).

In contrast, exports to China contributed 4.7 percentage points to the total variation.

What happened with the Netherlands was mainly explained by lower exports in the category of other varieties of coal (-75.4% compared to March 2023).

Meanwhile, the increase in exports to China was mainly explained by higher crude oil sales.