Agricultural exports surge by 36.9% year-on-year

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Development released its Sectoral Overview for September 2024, showing strong growth in agricultural and manufacturing exports but declines in transportation, trade, and tourism. Agricultural exports grew by 36.9% from January to September compared to the previous year, driven by increased cocoa exports to the U.S. and Belgium, raw tobacco to the U.S., and eggs to Cuba. In September alone, agricultural export value rose 43.6% year-on-year to $78.5 million. Manufacturing exports from free trade zones increased by 9.5% to RD$253,541.0 million, while local manufacturing exports grew by 11.1% to RD$RD$58,189.4 million.

The transportation and trade sectors faced declines. The land freight transport mobility index dropped 6.9%, and passenger transport decreased by 3.3%. Total transport operations fell 7.7% year-on-year in September, amounting to  RD$16,849.9 million, with a 2.5% decline for January-September. Trade activity also contracted, with real operations declining 15.4% year-on-year in September and 5.3% for January-September, totaling RD$1,422,747.8 million.

Tourism showed mixed results. Non-resident foreign arrivals in September fell by 2.7%, or 10,400 fewer tourists, totaling 378,946 visitors. However, cumulative arrivals for January-September reached 5.4 million, marking a year-on-year growth of 7.1%. American tourists made up 31.3% of non-resident visitors, followed by Colombians (8.7%) and Canadians (6.7%), among other nationalities. The data highlights areas of resilience and challenge within the Dominican economy.