OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2011. China and other Asian economies have become the dominant market for Chilean exports, which are rising over recent years, a local newspaper reported.
 
While China has become by far the largest consumer of Chile's exports to the east Asian market, other Asian economies including South Korea and Malaysia have also taken on growing importance, the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio said in a special report.
 
The report said most of the boom in the Asian market share seen in the last few years is due to the increased export volume of copper and other raw materials, of which about 80 percent went to China and other key emerging markets in Southeast Asia.
 
According to the Chilean central bank, during the first half of 2011, Chile's exports to the Asian market reached 44 percent of its total export volume, which is worth 18.3 billion U.S. dollars. Four-one percent, or 17 billion dollars, went to the United States, Europe and South America's Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
 
However, it is unhealthy for Chile to focus mainly on copper exports because the international copper price is expected to lose about half of its current value in the next 10 to 15 years, the paper quoted private economists as saying.
 
Hugo Baierlein, director of the Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA), said export products are becoming more diverse as new sanitary protocols have been adopted in 2006 and 2010. "Today we can export pork meat, poultry, agroindustrial products, and since 2011 even milk powder," he said.
 
Maria Lorena Sepulveda, director of the Chilean trade commission ProChile, said Chile is working on diversifying its products for exports. ProChile recently opened a trade office in China and holds regular events to promote exports of Chilean food and other non-traditional products.