Latin American and Caribbean Agri-Food Exports in the Long Run, 1850--2024: New Estimates and Main Findings

This article reconstructs the evolution of Latin American and Caribbean agri-food exports between 1850 and 2024 by developing homogeneous series based on international sources and historical databases. To do so, it combines data from Federico and Tena (2019), the International Institute of Agriculture, the FAO, FAOSTAT, and UN Comtrade, linking different series expressed in constant dollars. The study shows that during the first wave of globalization, the region became deeply integrated into international markets through the export of primary products, although outcomes varied depending on products and regions. The two world wars and the Great Depression generated major external shocks, especially for South America. From the mid-twentieth century onward, import-substitution industrialization policies, international protectionism, and the structure of the export basket reduced Latin America's relative weight in global agri-food trade. Since the 1990s, and especially after 2001, trade liberalization, regional agreements, the rise of Asian demand, particularly from China, technological change, and improved terms of trade drove a new export boom, associated with a degree of reprimarization and unevenly distributed benefits.