2024-07-15 07:43:39
Cocoa was the subsector that grew the most in terms of exports in the department of Huila, going from 1,706 million dollars during the period January-May 2023, to 6,518,159 dollars during 2024, with sales mainly to Japan.
And the second subsector that grew the most in exports in Huila was tilapia, with an increase of 38.4% compared to the previous year. In the case of tilapia fillets, sales went from 17.5 million dollars in 2023 to 23.9 million dollars in the period January-May 2024, with the Canadian market as the main destination.
Huila ‘rebounds’ in exports
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Huila, with 15.2%, was the third department in the country with the highest growth in exports of non-mining-energy products during the first 5 months of 2024, where cocoa, tilapia, and coffee were the subsectors that most drove this increase.
As Governor Rodrigo Villalba Mosquera has expressed in various scenarios, Huila, as a department with an agricultural vocation, is consolidating itself as a power in food production, being strategic in the supply of Bogotá and other areas of the country.
Likewise, our department has been growing in terms of exports, as revealed by the figures from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, which show that the increase in exports between January and May was 15.2%, compared to the same period in 2023, which means that Huila sold 317.4 million dollars in this period of time, 42 million more than the previous year.
You may be interested in:
Regions with the greatest development
According to the Ministry, Risaralda, Nariño, Huila and Magdalena, the departments that make up the top 16 of those that make the greatest contribution to Colombia’s non-mining energy basket exports, registered a double-digit increase in that type of sales between January and May.
The analysis of this entity, based on figures from Dane, indicates that these four departments sold US$1,047 million in agricultural, agroindustrial and industrial products to the world in the first five months of the year. This figure represents a growth of 26.6% compared to the same period in 2023, when they exported US$827 million together.
Between January and May of this year, foreign sales of agricultural, agro-industrial and industrial goods (not mining and energy) reached US$8,810.1 million, an increase of 6% compared to US$8,310.4 million in the same period in 2023.
You may be interested in:
The fastest growing sectors
With a positive variation of 281.9%, cocoa was the subsector that grew the most in terms of exports, going from 1,706 million dollars during the period January-May 2023, to 6,518,159 dollars during 2024, with sales mainly to Japan.
The second subsector that grew the most in exports from Huila was tilapia, with an increase of 38.4% compared to the previous year. In the case of tilapia fillets, sales went from 17.5 million dollars in 2023 to 23.9 million dollars in the period from January to May 2024, with the Canadian market as the main destination. Meanwhile, fresh refrigerated tilapia went from exporting 3.3 million dollars to 4.9 million dollars during the same period in 2024.
For its part, coffee, with 4.9%, was the third subsector that most drove the growth of exports from Huila during the January-May period, going from selling 246.8 million dollars in 2023 to 258.9 million dollars in the same period in 2024, with the United States as its main export partner.
Other subsectors that also contributed to the growth of exports between January and May were fish offal, which went from $724,667 in 2023 to $803,444 in 2024, with a growth of 10.9%; panela, which went from exporting $95,400 between January and May of last year to $127,000 in 2024, which means a growth of 33.1% during this period. Likewise, granadilla went from exporting $4,586 in 2023 to $86,378; fresh pitahayas, which went from exporting $9,630 in 2023 to $37,976 in 2024.
Other economic lines
It is also important to highlight that these positive export figures for Huila may be higher, since products such as avocado and Tahiti lemon are purchased by exporting companies from other areas of the country, which means that these figures are not uploaded to the records of our department.
With this in mind, the Huila Grande government has prioritized the agricultural sector in its Development Plan, and intends to modernize it with the acquisition of machinery and equipment for around $150,000 million aimed at agro-industrialization, in addition to development projects to improve the productive capacities of rural entrepreneurs, and the execution of transversal strategies such as the intervention of tertiary roads, and the strengthening of enterprises, which denotes the great commitment to the Huila countryside.
It should be noted that these positive export figures for Huila may be higher, since products such as avocado and Tahiti lemon are purchased by exporting companies from other areas of the country, which means that these figures are not uploaded to the records of our department.
You may be interested in:
The aeronautical project
And without a doubt a project that will bring more development to the region, according to the representative to the House for the department of Caquetá and Algeciras, Jhon Fredy Núñez: “We managed to obtain the endorsement of the Minister of Transport, William Camargo, to include the International Cargo Airport in the National Development Plan. It is an air terminal that was built in 1932 and is currently at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense.”
This property is located between the municipalities of Altamira and Garzón and the project would be carried out there.
“We need them to pass it directly to the Civil Aeronautics and in this way continue working to obtain the pre-feasibility and feasibility resources,” added the politician.
It is mandatory to comply with it
Jhon Fredy Núñez, indicates that it is interesting for citizens to know that the PND is a law of the country and for this reason it is mandatory.
“I am convinced that this airport is the most important project left in the National Development Plan for the south of the country, not only for the department of Huila, for example Caquetá, has a livestock herd of more than 2 million cattle, we produce more than 2 million liters of milk a day, we are taking out approximately 1,500 fattening steers, this represents 230,000 tons of meat a year,” said the representative to the House.
He points out that Huila is producing 120,000 tons of coffee and more than 20,000 tons of tilapia fillets.
“What we are seeking is to strengthen the economy and therefore agriculture, so that the resources that the National Government has, the $4 billion that the Ministry of Agriculture is going to invest, are well allocated, so that our farmers can take out their products, export them and in this way improve the quality of life of each one of them,” said the politician.