Transport materials and optical instruments and devices shipped from El Salvador were among the most demanded by the Nicaraguan market in 2024.
Nicaragua is the country of Central America to which El Salvador has increased exports the most between January and April 2024, according to data from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR).
Salvadoran exports have reported a drop of 5.7 percent from 2023. The BCR shows that the country went from sending $2,260 million, in the first four months of 2023, to around $2,131.2 million by 2024. Despite this, there are markets that have demanded more Salvadoran products than a year ago.
Statistics indicate that in the first four months of 2023, El Salvador exported $159 million to Nicaragua, while for the same period of 2024 it amounted to $179.2 million, marking an increase of 12.4 percent.
Rising boosters
According to the BCR, the area the most increased exports to Nicaragua was that of transport materials by 127.6 percent, from $1.5 million between January and April last year, to more than $3.4 million for the same period as 2024.
Companies dedicated to exporting optical instruments and apparatus, photography or cinematography, medical and musical instruments also increased international shipments to the Nicaraguan market by 112.9 per cent.
Textile materials and their manufactures were the most demanded by Nicaragua and, in the first four months of the year, $25.8 million were exported, an increase of 70 per cent over $15.1 million in 2023. This item is the one that occupies the highest proportion of the goods shipped, when it is approximately 14.4 %.
The trend of the sector most demanded by Nicaragua changed compared to the same period in 2023, when food, drink and tobacco products were in the first place.
The Nicaraguan market is the fourth most important for Salvadoran exports, and 8.4 percent of shipments made so far in 2024 are used.
Nicaragua is surpassed only by Honduras, to which 14.8 percent of all Salvadoran exports are sent, Guatemala receives 18.7 percent and the United States adds 35.1 percent, with more than $747.5 million.
Central American Sending
El Salvador’s exports also increased to Guatemala by 3.8 percent, from $384.6 million to $399.2 million, a difference of $14.6 million.
The increase was also notorious, but in a lighter portion, to Belize, where an increase of 0.3% was reported at the close of April 2024 with $7.5 million accumulated.
In which there was a setback, it was in the Honduran, Costa Rican and Panamanian market, as El Salvador exported less in 2024 than it sent a year ago.
The BCR shows that companies in El Salvador sent 6.2 percent less to Honduras between 2023 and 2024, adding more than $315.6 million.
For its part, 5 per cent less was exported to Costa Rica and in Panama the fall was 2.9 per cent.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario Elmundo