Portuguese Cork Industry and Trade
Cork is considered as "the Jewel" of Portuguese Economy. Therefore I will analyse all imports and exports values during 2016 from The United Nations Comtrade database
Questions I would like to see answered:
■ How much does Portugal export and import? Its balance is positive or negative?
■ What are the main trading partners, i.e. from/to which countries does Portugal import/export the most?
■ Which are the regular customers, i.e. which countries buy cork from Portugal every month?
■ Which countries does Portugal both import from and export to?
Total trade flow
How much does Portugal export and import? Its balance is positive or negative?
Sum of Exports: 481,758.764 US Dollars
Sum of Imports: 7,005.680 US Dollars
During the 2016 year, almost 482 Million US dollars in total exports. Imports only total 7 million.
Balance is positive, by 475 Million dollars.
Trading Partners
What are the main trading partners, i.e. from/to which countries does Portugal import/export the most?
Top 5 Total Imports
Spain: 4,760.387 US Dollars
Italy: 579,803 US Dollars
France: 366,745 US Dollars
Chile: 313,390 US Dollars
United States of America: 278,800 US Dollars
Top 5 Total Exports
France: 76,370.217 US Dollars
United States of America: 73.930.497 US Dollars
Italy: 64,211.803 US Dollars
Germany: 60,207.500 US Dollars
Spain: 35,600.308 US Dollars
Regular Importers
Which are the regular customers, i.e. which countries buy cork from Portugal every month?
Here I am defining regular as a costumer who buys cork from Portugal every month, during the year 2016.
■ How many countries buy cork from Portugal every month?: 53 countries
■ Out of how many countries? 109 countries
Therefore, half of the trading partners buy every month cork from Portugal.
Portuguese Trade
Which countries does Portugal both import from and export to? 110 Countries.
2016 Graphic Trend
Conclusions
■ The cork trade in Portugal from January to December 2016 was analysed in terms of which countries Portugal mostly depends on for income (exports).
■ Over the period, Portugal had a trade surplus of over 475 Million dollars. France and the USA are the main partners.
■ Portugal exported to over 109 countries during the year. From these 109 countries, 53 of them were regular buyers, that is, they bought cork from Portugal every month.
■ Portugal only imported from 27 countries, the main ones being Spain, Italy and France, probably because they are geographically closer.