The Latin American Market
Today, favorable winds blow for Latin American economies; the high prices of the raw
materials exported by these countries, such as oil, minerals, forestry, livestock, agriculture
and fish farming, have contributed to the region achieving outstanding growth, with a real
growth of 5.2% of the GNP expected for 2010. Countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Chile
stand out, whose GNPs increased by 7.6%, 6.5% and 6.5% respectively in the first half of
the year.
The Chilean Market
In Chile we have large industries such as mining, salmon farming, agriculture and forestry.
The main commercial product is copper mining, which is 36% of the worldwide market. The exploitation of other resources is also important, such as molybdenum, gold and silver. In the present-day, copper extraction represents 30% of the country’s exports. The domestic enterprise “Codelco Chile” is one of the largest mining companies in the world, and its main mine is Chuquicamata, which is the largest open pit mine in the world (it has an approximate size of 4.5 km in length, 3.5 km in width and 1.25 km depth). The second largest is El Teniente, which is comprised of almost 2.400 km of underground galleries, for which it is considered the largest underground copper mine in the world.
The export of fruit and vegetables has reached historical levels, through the opening of doors in the European and Asian markets, as with the forestry, fishing and shellfish producers. An example of this is that, during the past years Chile has become the second largest worldwide producer of salmon and trout, second only to Norway
Chile is the fifth largest exporter of wine, with 6.9 million hectoliters (8% of the worldwide total), which represents 70% of the national production. In the ambit of wine-producing grapes, our country is seventh, corresponding to 4.6% of the worldwide total.
In the technology market, in the first trimester of 2010, Chile was the best evaluated at the Latin American level. It is the regional leader in several aspects such as: the number of computers is 378 machines for every 1000 inhabitants, the total spending on ICT per inhabitant reached 442 dollars annually, annual internet sales reached US$107 per inhabitant, the number of servers reached 3.3 for every 1000 inhabitants and lastly, mobile phones reached 100% penetration (third country in South America to reach this number).
