Imports of agricultural products, food and beverages grew 41.1%, going from US $ 543.6 million (as recorded in March 2020) to US $ 766.9 million.
The National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) revealed that during March 2021 Colombian imports registered an increase of 37.5%, going from US $ 3,587.7 million in March 2020 to US $ 4,934.8 million.
Manufacturing imports reached US $ 3,842.1 million, which represents an increase of 43.2% compared to the same month of 2020. The result is mainly due to the purchases of machinery and transport equipment (36.9 %) and chemical products and related products (45.4%), which together contributed 30.2 percentage points to the group’s variation.
On the other hand, purchases of fuels and products from the extractive industries fell 9.6% to US $ 318.1 million. The products that contributed the most to the decrease were petroleum, petroleum products and related products ((-19.5%).
Also read: How the Colombian economy has fared in 2021
In addition, imports of agricultural products, food and beverages grew 41.1%, going from US $ 543.6 million (registered in March 2020) to US $ 766.9 million. The result was mainly explained by higher imports of food products and live animals (48.4%).
Between January and March of this year, Colombian imports totaled US $ 12,661 million. In that period, imports of the manufacturing group were US $ 9,686.6 million and increased 8.8%, compared to the same period in 2020, as a result of higher purchases of chemical products and related products (16.2%) and machinery and transport equipment (4.1%).
In March of this year, Colombian imports from the United States accounted for 24.8% of total imports; It was followed by external purchases from China, Mexico, Brazil, France, Germany and India. The increase in imports originating from China in March 2021 compared to March 2020 was explained by higher purchases of digital processing machines (147.4%).
According to the import declarations, merchandise originating from the United States participated with 25.2% of the total registered in the first quarter of the year, followed by those originating from China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France and India.
