Global Courant 2023-05-04 11:05:46
The post-pandemic stage left severe delays in global logistics chains, an increase in shipping freight and ups and downs in the demand for certain raw materials, to which was added the tragic and sterile Russian invasion of Ukraine, which brought other effects such as increases in fertilizers, new delays in transport, increase in fuel costs, inflation, rise in interest rates and other distortions in international markets.
However, with headwinds and challenging outlooks, traditional and non-traditional Guatemalan exports continued to make headway. The challenges of productive efficiency, price competitiveness and timely compliance with contracts are constant, conditions that can often make a difference in changes of suppliers of raw materials. Certainly the high quality of Guatemalan products such as coffee, sugar, bananas and cardamom, to name a few, generate specific preferences, which in turn allows ambitious projections to be established despite the variability of prices for certain items.
In fact, in 2022 five of the mentioned products marked a promising recovery in prices and sales. Although some sectors benefited more than others, the income from their exports totaled US$4.445 billion —almost Q35 billion—, which represents 28% of total sales abroad. Said figure should be seen as something more than a number belonging to a small sector, since it includes thousands of direct jobs, whose salaries imply trade and jobs for other regions; At the same time, the provision of goods and services is demanded by suppliers of machinery, transport, energy and professional services.
One cannot fail to mention the rest of the sectors that contributed another US$11 billion in income to the country, among which are the production of fats and oils, textiles, fruits, vegetables, flowers, manufacturing, food and beverages, transportation services, communication and logistics, among others. In other words, Guatemala produces a growing range of goods and services, the trade of which is favored by the recovery trends of nearshoring by the United States. Such factors must be taken advantage of within the medium and long-term national strategy.
That is why the relative indifference with which aspirants to public office, especially presidential candidates, refer to the “generation of more employment” and the “attraction of investment” as obvious ways to improve the national economy is striking. However, they explain little or nothing about how, specifically, they are going to guarantee the transparent, efficient and rapid execution of road infrastructure, which is so lagging behind and deficient, which constitutes a drag on competitiveness. The same is true of the improvement of ports, airports and the reinvention of the railway. Neither are concrete plans exposed regarding how they will improve technical education and the scientific and digital competences of children and young people.
Platitudes and similar omissions tend to exhibit candidates for deputies, not only currently, but for more than two processes, but until now the approval of regulations such as the Competition Law, essential to expand productive fields and attract new capital, has not been achieved. . The same is true of the Road Infrastructure Law, whose absence prolongs a system that has shown its dysfunctionality and that favors discretion.
Favorable winds for exports
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