By Juan David Cano, CAMBIOColombia, March 4, 2025
https://cambiocolombia.com/economia/exportaciones-colombianas-comienzan-2025-leve-aumento
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
DANE has released some data about Colombia’s exports in January 2025. What products were the most outstanding, and where were they being sent?
According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), this country’s external sales for January 2025 were valued at $3,776,000,000. That represents a 4.3% increase compared to January 2024.
That increase is principally owed to the strong performance in the agricultural sector, food and drink, where exports increased by 42.5%. In contrast to that, fuel and extractive industry products registered a drop of 14.5 %.
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Agricultural exports compensated for the fall in exports of fuel and extractive industry products.
As detailed, the agricultural sector was the principal engine of growth in January of 2025, with exports valued at $1,144,700,000. The products contributing the most to this success were unroasted coffee, with an increase of 107.7%, and flowers and cut foliage, which increased by 15 %. The upturn in coffee exports is explained by increased demand in markets like the United States and Belgium.
In contrast, exports of fuel and extracted products fell from $1,833,900,000 in January 2024 to $1,568,000,000 for the same month in 2025. The diminution was largely because of a strong contraction of 49.5% in sales of coal, coke, and briquettes, although crude oil and its derivatives registered a slight increase of 2.4%.
In spite of the fall in extracted products, which were 7.3 percentage points less than the total growth in January, agriculture was able to compensate for the reduction by contributing 9.4% to the country’s total export sales in January.
So, in reviewing the total production of every sector, that of fuel and extracted products continues to be the principal export business for this country. Its contribution to export sales was 41.5% as compared with 30.3% for agriculture. In fact, its exports were valued at $1,568,000,000 at their lowest, exceeding the $1,144,700,000 for agricultural products.
However, DANE pointed out that the participation of the agriculture sector is continuing to increase, and thus was able to sustain the reduction in the hydrocarbon sector.
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Air transportation was key to the increase in the exports of flowers
An example of the increase in agricultural exports was that of flowers, and air transport also played a fundamental role in that increase. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 317 cargo flights were registered, with Miami as their main destination. In the Valentine season alone, Colombia exported more than 65,000 tons of flowers to the United States, which represents an increase of 13% as compared to the previous year.
With these figures, floriculture continues to be a pillar of agricultural exports. Asocoflores reported that floriculture supplied 15% of the country’s agricultural GDP, and that 80% of Colombia’s air cargo exports consisted of flowers.
The other sectors that also increased
The manufacturing sector also showed a positive performance with an increase of 1.8% and a total value of $734,700,000. For this segment, chemical products and related goods increased by 6.1%, and manufactured articles using chemical products increased by 4.9%. However, machinery and transportation equipment exports fell 10.5%.
Finally, the “other sectors” group that is mainly nonmonetary gold increased by 25.8 %, reaching $329,400,000. That result is largely attributed to the greater demand for gold in international markets.
In spite of all that, according to some economists, the real increase, with these notable differences between the agricultural products and the products of extractive industries, is pretty low. The economic analysis of Diego Montanez-Herrera notes that, “In January of 2025, Colombia’s exports increased by 4.3% year-to-year, but with some important divergences. The non-traditional exports increased 13%, representing 47.4% of the total, while the traditional exports diminished by 3%, representing 52.6% of the total. In the 12 months, the total increase was barely 0.1%,” he explained.
Principal export destinations; the countries to which Colombia sells the most
The United States is definitely Colombia’s main commercial partner. It buys 30.7% of its total exports. The sales to that country grew 20.8 % in comparison to sales in January 2024, mostly pushed by coffee and flowers.
Here is a list of the countries to which Colombia sends most of its exports:
- United States 30.7%
- Panama 6%
- The Low Countries 4.9%
- India 4.7%
- Ecuador 4.7%
- China 4.6%
- Brazil 4.0%
- Other countries 40.3%
“Colombia’s exports to the United States are continuing to increase. Standing out is the increase in non-mining and energy sector (26%) and the agriculture sector (43%) according to DANE. Those results confirm that the non-mining and energy sector is leading the bilateral trade relationship, with agriculture as the protagonist. In the context of the new tariffs, the United States continues to have a demand for Colombian products that it does not produce or does not have available throughout the year,” said the President of the Colombian-American Chamber, AmChamColombia, Maria Claudia LaCouture.
She added, “Colombia has everything it needs to be able to count on our common interests, generating prosperity not only in the United States, but also in Colombia, through products that complement each other, competitive prices, and a close-by and efficient delivery system. That’s why it’s key to strengthen our role as a strategic ally, negotiating measures that strengthen the degree in which we complement each other.”