Colombia’s Non-Mining Exports Reached 61.7% of Total Exports as Services Grew 11.3%: Report

Travel and transport powered an 11.3% rise in services exports

Colombia continued to diversify its export base in the first quarter of 2026, with nearly two of every three dollars earned from foreign sales now coming from non-mining and non-energy goods and services.

Services exports reached $5.34 billion USD between January and March, up 11.3% from $4.8 billion USD in the same period of 2025, according to balance-of-payments data from the Banco de la República (Colombia’s central bank) analyzed by the Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo (Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism).

“Colombia is building a more complex international integration, with greater added value and less concentration in the mining and energy sectors.” — Diana Marcela Morales Rojas, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism

Combined with $6.48 billion USD in non-mining, non-energy goods exports, the country’s non-mining export basket totaled $11.82 billion USD. That represented 61.7% of Colombia’s total exports for the quarter, above the 55.8% target set for 2026.

“We are advancing a productive transformation aimed at broadening and adding sophistication to the country’s exportable supply, strengthening business and regional capacities, and diversifying the sources of foreign-exchange generation,” said Diana Marcela Morales Rojas, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. “The results show that Colombia is building a more complex international integration, with greater added value and less concentration in the mining and energy sectors.”

An airplane taking flight. Tourism has driven the 11.3% increase in Colombian service exports this year. Stock photo by Norbert via Pixabay.

Tourism powers services exports

The increase was driven mainly by tourism-related activity, particularly travel and transport, which together accounted for 67% of services exports between January and March. Within transport, passenger transport was the main driver of the growth.

Travel, which made up 50.1% of the services export portfolio, generated $2.68 billion USD in the quarter, a 9.5% increase over the first quarter of 2025. Transport accounted for 16.8% of services exports, reaching $898 million USD, up 11% year over year.

The third-largest category was other business services, at 16.4% of services exports. The segment, which covers trade-related technical services along with consulting and business support, exported $874.7 million USD in the quarter, up 11.7% from a year earlier.

Headline image:Stock photo by Rudy and Peter Skitterians via Pixabay.