The exports of the country grew by 17.6% compared to 2021, and represented a record amount of almost 13.6 billion dollars in income for the country, as published by the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay (CIU) in its Annual Report on Exports of Goods from Uruguay.
Previous estimates already allowed us to intuit good numbers of exports and in the government it was one of the points of pride to brag about the management of 2022, when other figures to show were not as positive as expected. Finally, official statistics confirmed what was expected: exports of goods last year were record.
In terms of volume they remained stable compared to the two previous years, but income in dollars grew by 17.6%. Likewise, in terms of the contribution of external placements to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)this also remained stable after the 2021 increase, with a 19% share.
The meat and its by-products remained as the main export item, with a 55% share of Uruguayan placements and 21% in the country’s total exportable supply. And although in terms of physical volume, the amount of sales fell, the amount exported in dollars increased by 2%.
China It continues to be the main destination market for Uruguayan meat even with a 5% drop in placements compared to 2021, with 58% of the share. USA is behind (11%), followed by countries Low (7%), Brazil (3%) and Israel (3%).
What were the exports that grew the most?
The growth of external placements was mainly due to the increase in exports of vehicles (119%), seeds (102%), cereals (38%), malt (38%) and dairy (twenty%).
As for the seeds, the soy was the great protagonist, with sales that increased above all to China, tripling the values registered in 2021 (233%) and reaching record levels. The increase in vehicle placements to Brazil also had an impact on the final figures for the item, which went from an exported amount of 199 million dollars to 436 million dollars in 2022.
In addition, malt exports to Brazil grew by 26%, and dairy exports, which went from 144 million in 2021 to 248 million dollars last year.
According to the CIU, the growing importance of primary products in the country’s exportable supply partly explains the loss of share of industrial exports in recent years. They went from representing 78% of exports of goods in 2001 to 66% in 2022.
The performance of exports in Free Zones
The CIU report also individually highlights the importance that the foreign sales of Uruguay from the free zones of the country. In 2022, the 19% of exports were made from these areas.
The biggest change is mainly due to the increased activity of the company Silver Mountains, which began producing in 2014 and currently represents 41% of the exportable supply from free territory. The rest of the placements are divided between the production of UPM (30%), PepsiCo (25%) and Mega Pharma in Science Park (4%).
Source: Ambito
