(By Agustina Pasaragua) In the last 5 years, cooperatives achieved an exponential growth of 167% in exports of national products, going from US$1,456 million in 2018 to US$3,889 million in 2022, with Indonesia, India and South Korea as its main markets that in total add up to 121 countries.
The presence of cooperatives in international markets is a key factor to encourage production and development of the national economy, in addition, quantifying their exports allows planning better public policies in the sector to analyze the incidence of certain chains of value, according to a report by the National Institute of Associativism and Social Economy (Inaes), the Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade (Aaic) and the Foreign Ministry.
“The increase in exports has to do with a policy to promote cooperative production but also policies specifically aimed at increasing production volumes. This allows markets lost from specific policies to be reinstated,” said Bárbara Witko in dialogue with Télam. , spokeswoman for Inaes.
Regarding the types of cooperatives that export and their main products, Witko said that currently there are a total of 103 exporting cooperatives and that 63 of them “do them periodically.”
“93% of what is exported in terms of currency flow corresponds to cooperatives that export for more than 50 million dollars per year, while 6% corresponds to cooperatives that export between 5 and 50 million dollars, with amounts that start $50,000 and up,” he explained.
Within this last segment are the cooperatives that export lower volumes, which correspond to products such as kiwi and certain value-added manufactures, while in the section that goes from $50,000 to $500,000 are shipments of peas and cherries.
Meanwhile, those that export between 500 thousand dollars and 5 million correspond to the tobacco, honey and yerba items.
“The cooperatives that generate between 5 million and 50 million are linked to the agricultural sector that export peanuts, tobacco, alcohol, grain, flour, oils, and products related to grains such as cereals and oilseeds. In addition, we can say that the main agricultural products group 91% of total exports being: corn, soybean by-products, soybean oil, wheat, sorghum, barley, sunflower oil, tobacco and peanuts,” Witko said.
Another fact that emerges from the report is that Argentine cooperatives export their products to 121 destinations, especially to countries on the Asian continent.
Between 2021 and 2022, for example, there was a notable increase in shipments to Indonesia, India, and South Korea, with export values increasing by $144 million, $92 million, and $98 million, respectively. .
Asian destinations are the largest markets and therefore the possibility of projecting exports to those destinations is essential. This growth is due to the incorporation of new cooperatives that began to export, but also due to the demand for certain products related to soybeans. and its derivatives, which in percentage terms increased compared to previous years.
In turn, this situation has an impact on local scales, since cooperatives are present in 94% of the towns in Argentina and have a strong link with community networks.
Along the same lines, Inaes’ chief of staff, Jonathan Thea, said that the policy of internationalization of cooperative products and services is strategic because it strengthens regional economies and increases the arrival of foreign currency to the country.
“We work so that more entities join the sector’s offer in terms of foreign trade, accompanying their scaling and volume processes to enter new markets that are demanding Argentine products,” Thea remarked in dialogue with Télam.
With this same objective, lines of work linked to the export of services related to the knowledge economy are incorporated, something that began to be promoted in 2021 when Inaes, Aaici and the Foreign Ministry signed the agreement of the “Cooperatives of the World” program.
“The program arose in order to broaden the export base in this sector that presents difficulties in accessing the search for markets and that do not have specific knowledge of how to export. In the last 2 years, cooperatives exported around 7,500 million of dollars and together with Inaes we put together the cooperative exportable offer that brings with it business opportunities that embassies abroad carry,” the director of Aaici, Martín Navarro, explained to Télam.
Another axis of work of the program is to promote technical assistance to formulate subsidized internationalization projects, which allows a diagnosis of the cooperative and the internationalization processes to be developed together with the promotion systems.
Referring to the expectations of the program, Navarro said that they aim to “sustain the growth of exports, incorporate small cooperatives for a larger scale, increase financing and subsidies in different international fairs, such as benefiting cooperatives that have women in leadership roles.” .
Source: Ambito
