ECONOMY OF THE PACIFIC REGION OF COLOMBIA: MAIN ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES - ECONOMY - 2024

The economy of the Pacific region of Colombia refers to the economic activities carried out in the Colombian territory that includes the section that goes from the border with Ecuador to the border with Panama, constituting more than 1,300 kilometers and representing 11.5% of the territory national.

This Colombian region concentrates 17% of the country's population and contains the departments of Chocó, Nariño, Valle del Cauca and Cauca. The Pacific region contributes 14.7% of the country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In addition, it generates 9.2% of exports.

Source: By Oscar Aquite Wikimedia Commons

However, this area experiences the highest poverty in Colombia. Chocó shows the highest poverty rate in the country, with 62.8%. On the other hand, the population of Cauca shows an index of 51.6%, when the national average is 27.8%.

The region has important natural resources and competitive advantages. In addition, it constitutes almost 50% of the coastal regions of the country, which makes the departments that make up this area essential for Colombia.

Main economic activities of the Pacific region

Agriculture and Livestock

This activity has grown higher than that observed in the country. This suggests that this dynamic did not respond to national trends, but to a local process.

Reviewing the figures produced by this activity, it is found that the crops that stimulate this dynamism are those of sugar cane for panela, corn and cassava, which are part of the usual diet.

The GDP information by department confirms that with 32% of national production, agricultural activity is the economic base of Nariño. In fact, it has always been characterized as fundamentally a rural economy.

The crop with the largest planted area in the department is oil palm and the one that shows the highest production is potato. The palm is planted in the Pacific region and the potato in the Andean region.

Total milk production in Nariño is more than 800 thousand liters per day, with an average production of 6.9 liters per day per cow.

The agricultural activity is labor intensive, therefore its impulse and development favors a wide human group.

Mining

While in the country mining extraction grew due to the activity of coal and oil exports, in this region it was due to gold.

In backward areas such as Chocó, the growth in gold production generates an important impact on the economy, since there are many families involved in its extraction.

tourism

More than 40% of tourism is represented by ecotourism, which includes nature and adventure tourism. This is thanks to the fact that this region has 7 and a half million hectares of tropical forest, 600 thousand hectares of páramos and some 200 thousand hectares of mangroves.

Nariño offers attractions for all tastes. It has everything to practice ecotourism, religious tourism, rural, adventure or commercial.

Examples of attractions classified as religious tourism are the Cathedral of Pasto, the sanctuary of Las Lajas and several small-town parishes.

The monument of the Battle of Bomboná, the carnivals of Blacks and Whites and the bridge of the Liberation Campaign are part of cultural tourism.

In the ecotourism category, the beaches of Tumaco, the La Cocha lagoon and several natural reserves are in demand. On the other hand, the Rumichaca bridge and the city of Ipiales provide their services for commercial tourism.

However, there are restrictions on tourism associated with insecurity, lack of roads in good condition, and insufficient promotion at both the border and national levels.

Port activity

The port of Buenaventura is the largest merchandise export and import center in Colombia, classified as the second largest generator of customs revenue in the country, excluding hydrocarbons and carbon.

Due to its particular characteristics, it is unique in the nation. It is the port with the largest participation in foreign trade. Buenaventura manages 45% of Colombia's international trade, especially in terms of volume of imports, while Cartagena manages 35%.

The port of Buenaventura is particularly important for the national economy, taking into account that 70% is represented in imports.

Among the products imported through this port are: corn, wheat, metal sheets, inorganic chemicals, steel, soybeans and other industrial chemicals.

The port area is made up of twelve docks, shared by the Buenaventura Regional Port Society and the National Navy. In its administration, the private sector has a participation of 83%, while the public sector, with the Ministry of Transport and the municipal mayor's office, participates with the remaining 17%.

Fishing

One of the main productive activities in the economy of Tumaco, with a large participation, has been fishing. It is one of the most dynamic fishing centers on the Pacific coast.

Artisanal fishing is basically a self-sustaining activity, although in certain cases it is traded in the local market. There are more than 20 associations in Tumaco that make up about a thousand artisanal fishermen.

Large companies that are in charge of industrial fishing look to exports as their main objective. This activity is present with 10% of the GDP of the city, representing 6.5% of the jobs.

The production of fish, crustaceans and molluscs, both cultivated and captured, is 129 thousand tons, deriving from tuna fishing 66 thousand tons.

The tuna fleet is made up of 29 vessels. More than 90% of the processed tuna is exported to the Ecuadorian market.

Forestry

In relation to agroforestry activities, there are mainly tagua and rubber crops.

Tumaco has as strengths its location by the Pacific Ocean, its environment, being in a bay where 5 rivers converge and having extensive areas of forests, although currently the exploitation practiced is done with obsolete techniques, presenting an indiscriminate felling of forests.

Business and services

Although service and commercial activities do not generate significant resources for the economy, they are the ones that employ the greatest amount of labor. However, most of these jobs are considered informal.

Illicit crops

Depressed fractions of the economy have served as fertilizer for the establishment of illegal crops, which occupy an area of ​​approximately 55 thousand hectares in Nariño.

This space is fought by drug traffickers, paramilitaries and guerrillas, present in 70% of the municipalities of this department, strategically choosing the fringes adjacent to Ecuador or the African palm plantations, in order to be protected from aerial spraying.

References

1. Pro Pacific (2020). Pacific Region. Taken from: propacifico.org.
2. Bank of the Republic (2020). Economies of the Colombian Pacific. Taken from: banrep.gov.co.
3. Cali Chamber of Commerce (2020). Pacific Region: Colombian platform in the Basin. Taken from: ccc.org.co.
4. University of Rosario (2020). How are we doing in the regions? Pacific region. Taken from: urosario.edu.co.
5. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali (2020). Colombian Pacific. Taken from: javerianacali.edu.co.