- YoY Jan-Nov exports up by 7.5% to $10.1 b
- ‘Apparels, fisheries delivered’-EDB Chairman Egodage
- Surge seen across multiple sectors
- Apparels net $ 4.45 b
Sri Lanka’s January-November exports have notched $ 10.1 b driven by a surge ‘across the board’ and specifically led by apparel and industrial products and the crucial apparel volumes appear to be almost on its annual earnings target.
“Several subsectors including apparel and fisheries have delivered and sustained our year-on-year growth,”said EDB Chairman and CEO Bandula Egodage commenting on the provisional top-line export data presented to him by his directors in Colombo on 30 December at EDB.
“Our November 2014 monthly provisional exports are at $ 923.7 m, which is a 2.8% increase from this October’s exports.
EDB Chairman and CEO
Bandula Egodage |
Our January-November exports are at $ 10.1 b, growing by 7.5% from 2013 January-November exports. This is only merchandise exports without taking into account service revenue such as ICT. Several subsectors including apparel and fisheries have delivered. Apparel exports are on track while fisheries and several other exports exceeded its annual target and sustained our year-on-year growth, as per the vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,”the EDB Chairman said.
Accordingly, January-November provisional merchandise (only) exports this year topped $ 10.108 billion, rising by 7.5% from 2013 January-November exports. Service exports values such as ICT/BPM exports are not included in Jan-November 2014 totals and are being awaited on by the EDB as they are still being processed by relevant agencies.
Except for export crops, natural rubber and diamonds, growth is seen ‘across the board’ in all other export sectors.Thus, 2014 YoY Jan-Nov apparel exports surged by a strong 10.35% to $ 4.458 billion, which is 94% of the annual apparel exports target set for this year (base formulated in 2011). Also annual targets of such sectors as coconuts, fruits and vegetables and floriculture have also now been achieved by Jan-November 2014 totals.
In this period, overall, industrial exports surged by 6.13% to $ 7.275 billion, agricultural exports surged by 9.42% to $2.46 billion, tea exports surged by 6.62% to $1.471 billion, manufacturing increased by 8.82% to $2.205 billion, coconut exports up by 53.5% to $497 million, unclassified products increased by 67% to $132 million and fisheries surged by 9.99% to $242 million. As of November, fisheries exports have exceeded their annual exports target.
The leading five markets for Sri Lanka in Jan-November 2014 have respectively been the United States, UK, Italy, India and Germany. The US continues to remain the largest export market for Sri Lanka with 24% of Jan-November 2014 exports ($2.43 billion) heading to it.
All the subsectors in fisheries–anexport that recently faced volatile EU markets but is now showing a promising turnaround– havesurged, in that, in Jan-November 2014, provisional ornamental fish exports have grown by 17.33% to $11.51 million, crustacean exports have grown by 29% to $51.10 million and edible fish surged by 5.25% to $179.76 million.
Of Sri Lanka’s 75 medium and large scale fishery export companies, 32 utilise EU-approved processing plants.
