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Fact File:
Opportunities in the Americas: 15 Hot Picks
Shopping for export opportunities
overseas? Consider the prospects closer to home. U.S.
agricultural exports here in the Americas topped $17 billion last
year and are headed for another record. While 70% of these sales
go to our NAFTA partners, there are other hot markets around.
With East Asia’s slump and the launch of hemispheric
free-trade talks, AgExporter scanned the Americas north to
south for markets showing strong growth--and the potential for
more. Only those taking at least $100 million in U.S. farm and
food products were considered. Of the 15 selected, all but one
registered U.S. export value gains of 60% or greater since 1990.
Of course, past trends offer no guarantees, and annual buying
patterns fluctuate (1997 featured unusually large U.S. soybean
and soy meal sales around the region). All data are for calendar
years.
With the major exception of
Canada, bulk and intermediate products still dominate U.S. sales
to these markets. But everywhere you look, exports of consumer
foods (fruits and vegetables, meats, snack foods, etc.) are
growing--in most cases, at a faster rate than trade in raw or
semi-processed commodities. The following table shows the value
of U.S. consumer food exports to each of the 15 selected markets
in 1990 and 1997. Not only have U.S. sales increased sharply to
most of these markets, but so has the consumer food share as a
percentage of total U.S. agricultural exports. In nearly half the
markets, the consumer food share of U.S. exports has doubled or
better since 1990. In 1997, consumer foods accounted for 72% of
U.S. agricultural sales to Canada and 30% or more of export value
to Mexico, Brazil, Panama and Chile.
U.S. Consumer Food Exports Showing Strong Growth
| Value | ($mil.) | |
| 1990 | 1997 | |
| Canada | 3,010.7 | 4,851.5* |
| Mexico | 575.0 | 1,581.0 |
| Brazil | 20.2 | 160.7 |
| Dominican Repub. | 15.7 | 85.9* |
| Colombia | 14.0 | 85.6 |
| Argentina | 4.1 | 67.9* |
| Panama | 43.1 | 61.5* |
| Venezuela | 29.1 | 59.1 |
| Guatemala | 6.9 | 53.0* |
| Chile | 4.6 | 40.1* |
| Costa Rica | 10.6 | 35.9* |
| Peru | 8.6 | 32.4* |
| Honduras | 5.6 | 31.6* |
| Ecuador | 3.8 | 30.1* |
| El Salvador | 5.2 | 17.6 |
| Note: The 15 markets are listed from the top according to the value of U.S. consumer food exports in 1997. Because they were selected based on total U.S. agricultural exports, they are not necessarily the region’s largest or fastest growing consumer food markets. | ||
* Denotes 1997 record high.
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