Browse Data and Analysis

U.S. agricultural exporters of consumer-oriented products are well-positioned to increase sales to Guatemala. In 2023, U.S. consumer-oriented export values reached a third-consecutive record on 15 percent growth from the previous year (Figure 3).

In 2023, the Guatemalan market showed significant potential for growth, with supermarkets, hypermarkets, and independent food stores expanding their locations.

U.S. Consumer Oriented products continue to feature prominently in Salvadoran retail outlets, registering a new record-high of $281.5 million of imports in 2022.

In 2022, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and independent food stores continued adding locations, but retail volume sales fell versus 2021.

The 2023 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world during the 2023 calendar year.

The 2022 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world during the 2022 calendar year.

El Salvador’s food manufacturing sector has been able to successfully adapt to a challenging environment and has provided signals of a rapid recovery, despite facing a continuous crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain shortages that increased the costs of raw materials and other inputs needed to produce food.

The retail sector in El Salvador has remained strong and stable, with new outlets opening and new online shopping options. Super Selectos is the largest supermarket chain, followed by Walmart which in January 2022 announced it is considering the sale of its outlet stores in El Salvador. Imports of U.S. consumer-oriented products reached a record-high of $267 million in 2021.

Supermarkets, hypermarkets, and independent food stores, continue expanding in Guatemala; imports of U.S. consumer-oriented products have continued to grow and in 2021, the value of these products reported a record year of $637 million.

El Salvador’s food manufacturing sector has kept a fast pace in terms of increasing production levels. Food manufacturers took the challenging environment caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to evolve and add new items to their food lines.

Guatemala is one of the top food processing countries in Central America; meats and bakery and dairy products continue to lead the domestic food processing sector. U.S. suppliers have good opportunities to export bulk, intermediate, and consumer-oriented products that can be used as ingredients for further processing.

The Salvadoran retail sector has remained strong and stable amidst the pandemic of COVID-19.