The number of regular exporters in Spain -those who have exported in the last four years- it has climbed 58.8% in 10 yearsincreasing from 37,253 in 2011 to 59,169 in 2021, according to the latest foreign trade data released by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
In 2021, Spain has reached a new all-time high in the number of regular exportersafter representing a total of 59,169 operators, out of the 100,891 total exporters of more than 1,000 euros, which represents an increase of 7.3% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Of particular note is the export volume declared by these operators, which reaches €289,315 million -17.7% more than the previous year- and represents 91.4% of total exports recorded in 2021.
Breaking down the data, in 2021 the 25,245 regular consolidated exporters who had exported at least 50,000 euros during the four years of regularity they exported a value of 285,931.5 million. For their part, the 540 regular exporters who exported 50 million or more -4 less than the previous year- achieved 164,605.5 million euros in exports, which represents a higher volume than that recorded in 2020.
Given this data, the Secretary of State for Commerce pointed out that, despite the drop in exports in 2020, internationalized companies have preserved and developed their international relations. “Spain has a solid and expanding export base, ready to continue to benefit from the international recovery”, they underlined.
And it is that, despite the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the number of regular exporters has grown steadily over the last ten years in Spain. Even in this atypical year 2020, the number of such operators increased by 4.1%, although the most notable year-on-year increases were recorded in 2014 (+11.3%) and in 2021 (+7.3%).
Overall, Spanish exports of goods in 2021 increased by 21.2% compared to 2020 and by 9.1% compared to 2019, reaching 316,609.2 million euros, an all-time high for the country .
Significant weight of capital goods in exports
The main sectors in terms of weight relative to total exports during the period were capital goods, which represent 18.6% of the total and increased by 13.8% compared to 2020, followed by food, beverages and tobacco (18% of the total and increased by 11.1), chemicals (17% of the total and increased by 32.3% over one year) and the automotive sector (12.8% of the total with an increase of 5% over one year).
For their part, the main positive contributions of exports from January to December 2021 comes from the chemical sector (5 points), non-chemical semi-finished products (3.5 points), energy products (3.3 points) and capital goods (2.7 points). Despite these exceptional contributions, Commerce notes that no sector contributed negatively.
Exports to the EU represent 61.8% of the total
With regard to destination, Commerce points out that exports to the European Union represented the 61.8% of the total after an increase of 23.8% compared to the previous year.
By country, the cumulative increase until December of exports to Italy (29.8%), Portugal (25.7%), France (19.7%) and Germany (9.6%) ) stands out. In the rest of Europe, sales to Turkey increased by 28.9% and sales to the United Kingdom increased by 10.6%.
Exports to third-party destinations increased by 17.3% year-on-year in this period and represent 38.2% of the total, highlighting the growth of exports to Latin America (26.1%), North America (19.5%), Africa (18.5 %) Asia excluding the Middle East (14.2%), the Middle East (12.7%) and Oceania (9.6%).
By country, increases in Nigeria (38.8%), India (37.1%), Chile (35.4%), Argentina (34.9%), Morocco (28.7%), Mexico (28. 1%), South Korea (26.7%), Peru (25.5%) and the United States (21.1%), while it was negative in Singapore (-9.3%) and in Algeria (-1.5%).
