More than 2,000 companies exported at the intraregional level between January and March 2024.
The companies located in El Salvador make up 20 percent of the companies that export to the region, according to a report from the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (Sieca).
Sieca notes that 2,606 exporting companies participated in intraregional trade, of which 42.5 % were located on Guatemalan soil at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
In the importance of companies, El Salvador is followed with 20.2 per cent of the total exporters, Costa Rica represents 16.1 per cent, Honduras 10.5 per cent, Nicaragua 7.9 per cent and Panama 2.4 per cent.
The document published in August indicates that shipments of Central American goods totaled $13,350.3 million during the first three months of the year, marking a drop of 7.5 percent from the same period of 2023.
Of this portion, 72.7 per cent went to nations outside Central America and 27.3 per cent contributed to goods marketed in the region.
Trade in general
Instruments of medicine, coffee and bananas and bananas were the most exported products by the Central American countries.
The United States was the main buyer of these products, accumulating 39.4 % of the share, followed by Central America with 27.3 % and the European Union with 13.7 %.
During the same period, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador were the main exporters in the region, registering 87.7 per cent of the total, the report says.
Central America also imported $26,950.1 million, marking a 0.3 percent rise. The Secretariat notes that Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras were the main buyers of these products, accounting for 64 per cent of regional imports.
In El Salvador
The document recalled that El Salvador exported $1,544,9 million during this period, of which 51.2 per cent corresponds to the extraregional market, and 48.8 per cent to the intraregional market.
The Central Reserve Bank (BCR) confirms that Salvadoran companies sent 18.8 per cent of their merchandise to Guatemala, 14.8 per cent to Honduras, 8.6 per cent to Nicaragua and 4.8 per cent to Costa Rican customers. Panama, for its part, received only 2 per cent of the property.
At the import level, the Salvadoran market bought $3,762 million, of which 79 per cent was shipped outside the region and 21 per cent remained in Central America.
In detail, El Salvador bought 9.90 per cent of imports to Guatemala, 8.37 per cent to Mexico, 4.98 per cent to Honduras, while from Nicaragua it acquired 3.11 per cent and Costa Rica by 2.85 per cent.
While the five countries are among the top 10 trading partners, at the import level, Panama ranks 41st with a 0.12 percent stake among suppliers.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo