The food industry is positioned as the main exporter of the country

The sector has exported between January and August of this year more than $800.7 million, a dynamism that was highlighted by Coexport in a fair with 150 businessmen who already export or are about to start in this sector.

The food sector is currently the country’s main export sector, with sales of over $800.7 million between January and August of this year, according to the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) database.

This dynamism has allowed the country to position itself as the fourth largest exporter in Central America, said the president of the Exporters Corporation of El Salvador (Coexport), Silvia Cuellar, during the forum Opportunities for Food Exports.

During the conclave, organized by the guild, 150 businessmen interested in getting started in international trade or strengthening their knowledge in export regulation, trends in microbiology applied to the food industry for export, water analysis for production and post-harvest, among other topics, met.

Cuellar said that this forum seeks to encourage a sector that is booming, which has managed to identify interested markets and new products to take them to different destinations in the world.

“The food sector has not gone down, on the contrary, it is going up, and we are seeing new products, we are even seeing new ventures, and we are seeing a significant interest in buying our products,” she said.

The executive noted that the main export destinations for Salvadoran food are Guatemala, Honduras, United States, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Belize; however, she said this item reaches all countries with which El Salvador has a free trade agreement (FTA).

Also, in the top of the main exported products are snacks, beverages, bakery, sweet cookies, condiments and sauces, in addition to all those known as nostalgic products that include frozen and canned food, and whose main market is the United States.

In general, as of last August, the country’s total exports amounted to $4,319.4 million, and among the sectors with the highest export values, after the manufacture of food products, is the manufacture of clothing, followed by the manufacturing industry, plastic products and textiles.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATIVE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Within the framework of the Opportunities for Food Exports forum, specialists from the RECLIMA Project, executed by FAO in El Salvador, spoke about the resilience of export foods to climate change, showing how the planting of native foods can be boosted to take them to foreign markets.

In this regard, Cuellar mentioned that they have analyzed the possibility of targeting products such as chufle, chupte, leaves such as papelillo, among many others, which are grown in the dry corridor of the country, and that could be successful among nostalgic products.

Source: Diario El Salvador