Year over year, the value of El Salvador’s exports accelerated by 36.7% compared to $4.14 billion during 2020.
Please note that El Salvador adopted the US dollar as its official currency in 2001.
The most valuable export products from El Salvador are knitted or crocheted jerseys and pullovers, knitted or crocheted t-shirts and vests, plastic packing goods including lids and caps, sugar, then knitted or crocheted stockings and hosiery. Combined, those top 5 most valuable products generated almost one-quarter (23.3%) of the revenue collected from all Salvadoran exports.
El Salvador’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 94.1% of products exported from El Salvador were bought by importers in: United States of America (31.1% of El Salvador’s global total), Guatemala (20.9%), Honduras (18.3%), Nicaragua (8.4%), Costa Rica (5%), Panama (2.2%), Dominican Republic (2%), Mexico (1.9%), South Korea (1.5%), mainland China (1.3%), Spain (0.8%) and Taiwan (0.7%).
From a continental perspective, 59.2% of Salvadoran exports by value was delivered to importers in Latin America excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean. El Salvador shipped another 33.3% worth of goods to North American countries with another 4.7% going to customers in Asia and 3.2% delivered in Europe.
Tinier percentages were sold to buyers in Oceania (0.11%) led by New Zealand and Australia, and 0.06% bought by importers in Africa.
Given El Salvador’s population of 6.52 million people, its total $5.66 billion in 2021 exports translates to roughly $870 for every resident in the Central American country. That dollar metric exceeds the average $600 per capita one year earlier during 2020.
El Salvador’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Salvadoran global shipments during 2021 at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from El Salvador.
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: US$1.2 billion (21.5% of total exports)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $517 million (9.1%)
- Paper, paper items: $385.2 million (6.8%)
- Sugar, sugar confectionery: $316.9 million (5.6%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: $273.1 million (4.8%)
- Pharmaceuticals: $209 million (3.7%)
- Iron, steel: $184.1 million (3.3%)
- Cereal/milk preparations: $171.7 million (3%)
- Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $158.3 million (2.8%)
- Knit or crochet fabric: $145 million (2.6%)
El Salvador’s top 10 exports accounted for almost two-thirds (63.2%) of the overall value of its global shipments.
Mineral fuels including oil was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 73.2% since 2020.
In second place for improving export sales were the metals iron and steel, which was rose 67.3%.
El Salvador’s shipments of knitted or crocheted clothing and accessories posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 55.9%.
The most modest percentage advance among El Salvador’s top 10 export categories was the 10.4% year-over-year uptick for sugar including sugar confectionery.
Drilling down to the more detailed 4-digit HTS codes, El Salvador’s top 10 most valuable exports are knitted or crocheted jerseys and pullovers (5.7% of El Salvador’s total), knitted or crocheted (5.3%), plastic packing goods including lids and caps (4.5%), sugar (4.2%), knitted or crocheted stockings and hosiery (3.7%), tissues or napkins and toilet paper (3.4%), medication mixes in dosage (3.2%), petroleum gases (2.4%), processed petroleum oils (2.3%), then non-alcoholic drinks (2.2%) excluding water, juice and milk.
Products Driving El Salvador’s Best Trade Surpluses
The following types of Salvadoran product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: US$1 billion (Up by 50.5% since 2020)
- Sugar, sugar confectionery: $280.9 million (Up by 7.1%)
- Coffee, tea, spices: $110 million (Up by 12.2%)
- Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $41.9 million (Down by -3.9%)
- Paper, paper items: $18 million (Down by -59.9%)
- Milling products, malt, starches: $12.9 million (Up by 98.3%)
- Live trees, plants, cut flowers: $12.4 million (Down by -36.1%)
- Gems, precious metals: $9.5 million (Down by -42.6%)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $7.2 million (Reversing a -$11.8 million deficit)
- Stone, plaster, cement, asbestos: $4.5 million (Down by -57.3%)
El Salvador has highly positive net exports in the international trade of apparel and sugar, partially due to the country’s low-cost labor force. In turn, these cashflows indicate El Salvador’s strong competitive advantages under the clothing and sugar product categories.
Products Causing El Salvador’s Worst Trade Surpluses
El Salvador incurred an overall -$10 billion deficit in 2021, expanding by 67.9% from -$5.95 billion in red ink one year earlier for 2020.
Below are exports from El Salvador that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country El Salvador’s goods trail Salvadoran importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$2.1 billion (Up by 139.4% since 2020)
- Machinery including computers: -$1.2 billion (Up by 91.2%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$1 billion (Up by 7.4%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$825.8 million (Up by 220.5%)
- Vehicles: -$609.7 million (Up by 44.1%)
- Iron, steel: -$438.7 million (Up by 163.5%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$437.3 million (Up by 78.2%)
- Cereals: -$416.9 million (Up by 60.1%)
- Other chemical goods: -$370.9 million (Up by 146.8%)
- Meat: -$258.2 million (Up by 26.9%)
El Salvador has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for refined petroleum oils and petroleum gases under the mineral fuels including oil product category.
Salvadoran Export Companies
No Salvadoran corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exporters from El Salvador. Selected examples are shown below.
- Empresas ADOC (shoes)
- Gpremper (internet technology)
- TACA Airlines (airliner)
- Unicomer Group (international retailer)
In macroeconomic terms, El Salvador’s total exported goods represent 8.9% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2021 ($63.3 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 8.9% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2021 compares to 8.1% for 2020. Those percentages suggest an increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for El Salvador’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. El Salvador’s unemployment rate averaged 10.303% for 2021 down from an average 11.973% in 2020, based on statistics from the International Monetary Fund.
El Salvador’s capital city is San Salvador.
See also Sugar Exports by Country, Honduras Top 10 Exports, Guatemala’s Top 10 Trading Partners, Nicaragua’s Top 10 Exports and Belize’s Top 10 Exports Plus Major Trading Partners
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on August 10, 2022
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on August 10, 2022
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity)
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 10, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on August 10, 2022
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on August 10, 2022
Wikipedia, List of Companies of El Salvador. Accessed on August 10, 2022
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on August 10, 2022
