The agricultural sector is a central player in the Argentine economy, both for its contribution to national production (especially in the interior of the country) and for its share in exports. However, a large portion of the population has limited knowledge about the sector, and the available information is difficult to access for non-specialists.
At Infodash we developed a new dashboard to easily explore production, export, and import data for agricultural products worldwide. We used data from the FAO for 195 countries on primary and derived agriculture and primary and processed livestock from 1961 to 2021. This vast amount of information allows us, on one hand, to describe what each country's agricultural sector produces and trades and its evolution over time. On the other hand, we can identify, within each product, who are the main producers and consumers.
For example, in the "Country Statistics" tab, we present aggregated data for each country. If we select "Argentina" in the country category and "Primary Agriculture" in production type, we observe significant growth from 35 million tons in 1961 to 173 million tons in 2021. Corn was the country's main crop in terms of harvested tons and exports, followed by soybeans and wheat.
Additionally, in the "Agriculture" and "Livestock" tabs, we zoom in for each country presenting statistics for each product in these categories. In particular, we compute a series of indicators that allow us to know what percentage of production is destined for foreign markets (export intensity) and what percentage of local consumption is supplied from abroad (import penetration).
Finally, the "World Statistics" dashboard allows us to see who are the main producers, exporters, and importers for each product. For instance, if we select "soybeans" in the Product category and "export" in activity type, we find that Brazil, the United States, and Argentina are the largest global producers. Conversely, if we select "import" in activity type, we find that China is the predominant importer of this product (75%).
The dashboard allows answering all these types of questions for different periods: What is the main agricultural product produced by a country? How has its production evolved over time? Which country is the largest producer of a given good? What percentage of its production does it export?
