How much did Panama export in the first seven months of 2026?
B/.913.1 million. That is the highest January to July export total Panama has recorded, and it is B/.142.5 million more than the country exported over the same seven months of 2025. The Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) published the figure on September 10, 2026. Panama’s balboa is pegged one to one with the US dollar, so the number reads the same either way.
The headline growth rate is 18.5%. The more useful detail is where that growth came from.
Where Did the Export Growth Actually Come From?
MICI and the Panamanian Exporters Association (APEX) break the total into two components. The gap between them is the real story.
| Export category | January to July 2026 | Change vs. 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Registered goods exports | B/.654.8 million | +10%, or B/.59.3 million |
| Value-added exports from special regimes | B/.258.3 million | +47.5% |
| Total exportable offer | B/.913.1 million | +18.5%, or B/.142.5 million |
Traditional goods exports grew 10%, worth an additional B/.59.3 million. Respectable, but not the driver.
The category that moved the number was value-added exports from special economic regimes, meaning goods manufactured inside Panama’s free zones and industrial parks rather than shipped out as raw commodities. That segment grew 47.5% year over year. Working from the two official figures, it accounts for roughly B/.83 million of the B/.142.5 million total increase, or well over half of the gain.
That composition matters more than the headline. A country whose export growth comes from processing and manufacturing is building something different from one whose growth comes only from good weather and a strong harvest.
What Is Panama Actually Selling Abroad?
| Product group | Share of exports |
|---|---|
| Frozen shrimp and fish | 18.3% |
| Fruits (primarily banana and watermelon) | 15.5% |
| Fish and palm oils | 11.4% |
Seafood leads the list. Behind the three groups above, MICI names teak wood, metal scrap and medicines as the next significant lines.
The ministry credits the fruit numbers specifically to the reactivation of banana and watermelon production. That is largely a Chiriqui province story. Banana production and export infrastructure are concentrated in the west of the country, around Puerto Armuelles and the agricultural lowlands near David, and shrimp farming and commercial fishing operate along the same Chiriqui Pacific coastline.
Who Is Buying Panamanian Goods?
The United States is the largest single destination at 16.9% of total exports for the period, a position it has held since 2023.
After the United States, MICI lists Taiwan in second place, followed by the Colon Free Zone, the Netherlands, India, Costa Rica, Denmark, Mexico and mainland China.
That is nine destinations across four continents, with no single buyer taking even a fifth of the total. For a small economy, that spread is a defensive asset. A tariff change or a bad year in any one market does not take the whole export sector with it.
Is This a One-Off or a Trend?
MICI notes the first quarter of 2026 already showed similar momentum, so the July figure is a continuation rather than a single strong month. For longer context, registered exports over the first eleven months of 2025 reached 905.4 million, which the ministry described at the time as the highest level for that period in the 2010 to 2025 series.
Two consecutive record-setting years is a pattern, not a spike.
What Does This Mean if You Own or Are Buying Property in Panama?
Export totals are not a property market indicator, and nobody should buy a house because shrimp shipments are up. The connection is slower and less direct than that.
What export data does show is which parts of the country have working economies underneath them. Agricultural and fishing exports put payrolls into Chiriqui province. Special-regime manufacturing and the free zone put them into Colon and the logistics corridor around Panama City. Regional economies with real export activity tend to hold rental demand and resale liquidity better than places running purely on second-home buyers.
If you are weighing a purchase in one of these regions and want to understand the local market rather than the national headline, Casa Solution can walk you through what is actually selling, at what price, and how long it takes.
Article written: September 12, 2026
Sources: Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (MICI), September 10, 2026
