Getting some use of Comtrade

One of the sources where you can find information about international trading is UN Comtrade Database (check the external links on the right). This is an international trading information repository that can be used to make queries about good transactions between two countries. It helps to get information about the goods and markets where you want to trade. If you have to make any business decision about any market, Comtrade will give you more info to be used by you to better base your choices.

Since we do produce and exports olive oils, this site was one that we started to use to get information about these goods trading numbers. You can find out the amount of goods and their value in dollars traded in between two countries or imported/exported to and by one only country. For example today I used UN Comtrade to get information about the olive oils that Germany has imported in the last years, and this is what I found out:

Year    Process            Countries                    Code   Amount ($)          Amount (Kg)

2008    Import             Germany                     1509    $283,621,000     51,561,070     

2008    Export             Spain   Germany         1509    $27,135,654       6,018,465       

2008    Export             Italy    Germany          1509    $206,218,369     35,559,721     

2009    Import             Germany                     1509    $252,070,000    54,186,912

2009    Export             Spain   Germany         1509    $24,275,187      6,409,446       

2009    Export             Italy    Germany          1509    $180,343,619    36,731,754     

2010    Import             Germany                     1509    $236,453,162    58,505,800

2010    Export             Spain   Germany         1509    $25,027,587      7,197,907       

2010    Export             Italy    Germany          1509    $183,123,130    40,082,950     

2011    Import             Germany                     1509    $273,710,898   64,671,779     

2011    Export             Spain   Germany         1509    $24,148,753     6,970,664       

2011    Export             Italy    Germany          1509    $211,035,350   43,750,886     

That is the info I got. I checked the amount in kg of olive oil imported by Germany during the years 2008 to 2011, I also got the amount exported by Spain (because is the country where we produce our product) and Italy (because is where the most olive oils come from in Germany). This numbers tell me that the olive oil consumption rises in time in Germany, and that Italy takes advantage of it sending more and more product over there. Spanish olive oils do not get more market share.

When we think about what is going on in Germany and the production statistics published by the International Olive Oil Council  I can not but wander myself how comes that being Spain the main olive oil producer, it has that small market share in Germany when compared with the Italian one. I have been surrounded by olive groves all my live and today I can see the heavy factories working in olive oil production, but commercialization and international distribution is a whole different sector where Italian companies have got the result of the great work done in the past. The same history repeated… Spanish companies (with few exceptions) need to risk resources to go to commercialize their products abroad. This is a new task where most of the companies in all sectors are getting involved in; we will see in the future how it goes.