The country is on track to export a record $1 billion in the first six months of the year.
Up to June 22 2010, Nicaragua had sold $955 million, 35% more than the same period of 2009.
Laprensa.com.ni remarked that “coffee remains the main export good, accounting for 23.95% of the total, followed by beef (14.02%) and raw gold (8.49%)”, according to data from the Nicaraguan Center for Exports (Cetrex).
The Venezuelan Government is negotiating the purchase of 10 million jeans produced in Nicaraguan Free Zones.
A trade mission from Venezuela, which includes Government authorities and private businessmen, is touring Nicaragua’s free zones. Alberto Baltodano, technical secretary of the National Free Zone Commission (CNZF), remarked that this deal would imply $100 million in revenue for the textile sector.
In the first five months of the year, exports summed $819.6 million, 33.5% more than in the same period of 2009.
Data from Exports Center Cetrex show that El Salvador shipped 788.584 metric tons of goods in the same period, 26% more if compared to 2009, when the country shipped 625.639 metric tons.
“The product that grew the most during the first five months of the year, going from $13 million in 2009 to $76.19 million in 2010”, reported Laprensa.com.ni. “The second highest growing product was petroleum derivates”.
In the first six months of the current coffee season, exports increased 43% when compared to the same period of the previous one.
Data from the Exports Center shows that between October 2009 and March 2010, the country sold $126.3 million, versus $88 million exported between October 2008 and March 2009.
The increase is likely due to more productivity and higher coffee prices.
In the first two months of the year the country sold $284.9 million, 31.8% more than the same period of 2009, when it sold $216.1 million.
Exported volume increased 30.9% in the same period, according to data from Cetrex, Nicaragua’s export Center.
“The United States remains the top market for Nicaraguan exports, followed by El Salvador and Venezuela. These three countries account for 50.42% of all sales”, reported Laprensa.com.ni.
From October to January 2010, Nicaraguan coffee exports summed $51.6 million, 11% more than the same period of the previous year, when $46.6 million were sold.
Cetrex, Nicaragua’s exports office attributes this increase to higher coffee prices in international markets.
“In the first four months of the current harvest, coffee was sold at an average price of $137.05 per quintal, up from $118.45 in the same period of the 2008/09 harvest”.
In January 2010 the country exported 33% more than the same period of 2009.
Nicaragua sold $128.6 million in the first month of 2010, a positive increase when compared to the $96.7 million exported in January 2009.
"The figure from January 2009 represented a 27.75% reduction if compared to the same month of 2008", reported Laprensa.com.ni. "As for volume, the country sold 48.6% more...".
In the first three months of the current harvest, the country sold 215.442 quintals, 25% less than the same period of the previous one.
The reason for this drop seems to be lower soil productivity, as reported by Cetrex, the center for exporting procedures, in a preliminary report.
Export income won't be hit as hard, though. Laprensa.com.ni reports that in this harvest, the average sale price for a quintal of coffee has been $135.49, 15.8% more than the average price for the same period of the 2008/09 harvest ($117).
In the first 9 months of the year, Nicaraguan exports to Venezuela have grown over 600%.
Oscar Alemán, economic adviser at the Nicaraguan Industry Chamber (CADIN), considers the figure could double or triple, if there was a Free Trade Agreement with Venezuela.
Gisella Canales analyzes the topic in her article in laprensa.com.ni: "Within the framework of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas, company Albanisa is in charge of buying domestic products and exporting them to Venezuela. Nicaraguan exporters must sell their products to this company. However, Cadin has prepared a proposal for a Free Trade Agreement between Nicaragua and Venezuela...".
In the first eight months of the 2008/09 harvest, from October to March, exports of the product reached $150 million.
According to data from the Exports Procedures Center (Cetrex, Spanish acronym), $173.1 million were exported in the same period of the 2007/08 harvest.
Website adn.es publishes: "According to Cetrex, this drop is caused by lower international coffee prices and less productivity in cultivated land."
99.246 kilograms of chicken meat were exported in the first half of 2009, 70% less than the 326.682 kilograms exported in the same period of 2008.
Donald Tuckler, executive secretary at the Nicaraguan Poultry Producers Association (Anapa, spanish acronym), indicated that, given the failure of the sale to Venezuela, they are analyzing exporting to Guatemala and Costa Rica, recovering the Honduran market, maintaining exports to Dominican Republic, and "taking advantage of any other opportunity".
Exports added up to $747 million between January and June compared to $825 million from the same period in 2008.
The Center for Processing Exports (CETEX, acronym in Spanish) also informed that the volume of exports fell by 5% in the same period.
Prensa Libre publishes on its website: “The volume of exports added up to 751,383.3 metric tons between January and June 2009, while during the same period in 2008 it was 791,465.1 metric tons, said the source.”
In the first five months of the year, exports from Nicaragua generated $616 million, 11.1% less than during the same period in 2008.
Data from the Center for Export Procedures (CETREX) also reflected a decline of 7.72% in the volume of exports in the first five months of 2009.
Prensa Libre published on its website: "Sales volume from January to May this year added 626,893.1 metric tons, while during the same period last year, it was 679,345.2 metric tons, explained the source."