Smartphones led Colombia's non-mining energy imports in 2024

Smartphones, medicines and yellow hard corn are the non-mining energy goods that led Colombia's imports in 2024.

This was highlighted by the National Association of Foreign Trade (Analdex) in a report in which it indicated that the three countries together accounted for 4.26 billion dollars, which represents 7 percent of the total amount brought in (60.363 billion dollars).

Specifically, smartphone imports reached $1.693 billion, representing an 8.1 percent growth compared to 2023, according to figures from Maro, based on the Dian and Dane.

Most of these external purchases came from China ($1.4 billion), followed by Vietnam ($248.5 million) , India ($36.4 million) and the United States ($4 million).

Imports of medicines totaled $1.306 billion, 2.2 percent more than in 2023, and came mostly from Mexico, the United States and Germany.

And yellow hard corn closed the top three with 1.261 billion dollars, which represents a 16 percent drop compared to the same period of the previous year. It is noteworthy that 99.4 percent of this came from the United States.

On the energy mining side, the Analdex union reports that beyond gasoline imports ($1.975 billion, a 19.7 percent drop), the growth of more than 117 percent in liquefied natural gas stood out, going from $400.7 million in 2023 to $870.5 million in 2024.