Trade Mission to Panama, Honduras and El Salvador

An Argentine trade mission of the auto parts, agricultural machinery and equipment for the meat industry sectors to Panama, Honduras and El Salvador took place from December 1 to 6.

Organized by the Argentine Foreign Ministry together with its embassies in those countries, the activity began on December 1 with an extensive work agenda in Panama that included business rounds with 21 Panamanian importers and distributors of agricultural and livestock, agricultural machinery, heavy machinery, auto parts, oil-hydraulic systems and the most important local meat processors.

In addition to the local private sector, Panama's Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Carlos Hoyos Boyd, was also present and spoke with the businessmen and expressed his interest in Argentina's export offer, with a view to increasing Panamanian productivity.

In the second stage of the mission, the Argentine business delegation went to the city of San Pedro Sula, the industrial hub of Honduras, where it held meetings with 50 local counterparts in order to diversify its supplier portfolio.

In addition to its potential for the export of pick-ups, the Honduran market -due to the dynamism of its coffee sector- offers concrete opportunities for our country in terms of agricultural machinery. Evidence of this was the presence at the event of the Deputy Minister of Coffee Growing, Carlos Murillo, who came to personally learn about Argentina's exportable offer in the sector.

The delegation traveled to El Salvador, last phase of the trade mission visit where the Argentine firms held business meetings with 23 local counterparts, including the main importers and distributors of agricultural machinery and auto parts.

In addition, the Salvadoran Coffee Institute organized a meeting for companies producing machinery used in this industry, with the presence of 10 cooperatives and associations of coffee producers.

In 2023, Argentina exported to Panama 172 million dollars in goods and more than 83.3 million in services, and imported from that country about 1.2 million dollars in goods and more than 201 million in services.

In the same year, Argentine exports to Honduras reached US$146 million in goods and more than US$ 8.3 million in services while imports amounted to approximately USD 2.2 million in goods and more than USD 15.1 million in services.

Argentina's exports to El Salvador in 2023 reached approximately USD 71 million in goods and more than USD 13 million in services, while imports reached USD 5.8 million in goods and more than USD 8.6 million in services.

Overall, Argentina's trade with these three countries reached US$727 million in 2023, a surplus in all three cases for a total of US$ 260 million.