Petroleum and Trade between Colombia and China
During 2016, Colombia imported US$42.9 billion worth of goods and exported US$30.2 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of US$12.6 billion. Furthermore, Colombia’s main export, representing 26% or US$7.9 billion of the country’s total, consisted of crude petroleum. On the other hand, the country’s main import in 2016, representing 8.2% or US$3.5 billion of all international purchases, was refined petroleum. Similarly, Colombia’s main trading partners during 2016 were the United States, China, Mexico, Panama, and the European Union.
Petroleum and Trade between Colombia and China
In terms of exports, Colombia sold US$871 million worth of crude petroleum to China in 2016, which represented 77% of Colombian exports towards the Asian Giant. At the prevailing market price during 2016, which was about US$42 per crude oil barrel, Colombia exported approximately 20 million barrels to China last year. This amount represents a substantial decrease from the approximately 36 million barrels of crude oil that China purchased from Colombia during 2015, when the average price per barrel was US$50. Likewise, it represents a decrease from the peak of 63 million barrels of crude oil exported from Colombia to China in 2014, when the average price per barrel was US$82. Meanwhile, in 2013, China purchased about 43 million barrels of crude oil from Colombia at an average price of US$100.
Mainly as a result of this double downward trend, less barrels of crude oil and lower price per barrel, the aggregate value of Colombia’s exports towards China have been declining steadily in recent years. In 2013, Colombia’s exports towards China totaled US$5.1 billion, which subsequently increased to US$5.76 billion in 2014. However, this amount then decreased to US$2.27 billion in 2015 and US$1.13 billion in 2016. Nevertheless, throughout these four years, crude petroleum has remained Colombia’s main export towards China always representing more than three-fourths of the total.
Simultaneously, Colombia’s overall export of refined petroleum has gone from US$4.35 billion or 7.1% of the country’s total exports in 2013 to US$2.77 billion or 4.9% of the country’s total in 2014. This downward pattern continued into 2015, when Colombia exported US$1.25 billion worth of refined petroleum representing 3.3% of the country’s total exports. Meanwhile, in 2016, the amount of refined petroleum exported increased somewhat to US$1.96 billion or 6.5% of Colombia’s exports.
On the other hand, Colombia’s main imports from China are transmitters and receivers for televisions and radio sets. In 2016, Colombia purchased some US$1 billion worth of these products from China, equating to 12% of the goods that the Asian Giant sold to the South American nation. Colombia’s second largest import from China in 2016 were computers and central processing units (CPUs), with a total that was valued at US$581 million or 6.7% of all Chinese imports into Colombia that year.
Overall, Colombia’s economic characteristics and boundless agricultural development potential are just some of the key reasons why Farmfolio’s CEO J. Dax Cooke began this journey to offer investors the unique opportunity to capitalize from an innovative market opening.