The data are incontrovertible. In the eight years between 2015 and 2022, Colombia’s leather industry has seen its opening to the world get smaller and smaller. Foreign sales, report data from the Ministry of Tourism and Economic Activities (MinCIT), dropped by an average of 8.5% per year. Seeing values dwindle dangerously: Colombia has dropped from USD 252 million in 2015 to USD 135 in 2022.
An increasingly small business
The only positive rebound in the historical series occurred in 2021, when Colombian tanneries sell USD 145 million worth of materials abroad. This is much higher than the USD 87 million of 2020 (but, it should not be forgotten, it was the year of global lockdowns), as well as 2019 (142 million). The trend in value, writes Más Colombia, does not reflect the seriousness of the situation, because high prices have allowed the value results to float better.
Looking at volumes, the scenario is even more serious: between 2021 and 2022, the drop is 41%. If exports have stagnated, it is because the main trading partners have slowed down in unison. Such as Italy, whose share in total exports in the historical series has fallen from 17% to 9.2%. And the United States, the number one customer which, although it has decreased its purchases, has seen its share in the total rise from 24% to 35.7%. Solutions are not in sight. Quite the contrary. The partial balance of the first half of 2023 sees Colombian exports still losing 20%.
Photo by Shuttestock
Read also:
