‘10 Billion dollars recorded for Merchandise Exports in 9 months of 2022’
Earnings from the merchandise exports increased by 5.75 % y-o-y to US$ 1,093.98 Mn in September 2022 as per the data released by the Sri Lanka Customs. This was mainly due to the increase in export earnings from Apparel & Textiles, Tea, Gems & Jewellery, Electrical & Electronic Components and Spices & Essential Oils.
Monthly Merchandize Export Performance, 2020 - September 2022 in Millions of US$
Sources: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Customs & Sri Lanka Export Development Board
Major Exports in September 2022
Major product sectors except Coconut based Products; Apparel & Textiles, Tea, Electrical & Electronic components, Spices & Concentrates Diamonds, Gems & Jewellery, Food & Beverages, Ornamental fish and Other export crops as shown in the table 1 below, recorded increased exports in September 2022.
Exports of Apparel & Textiles increased by 5 % y-o-y to US$ 479.88 Mn in September 2022. The increase was driven by both Apparel and Textiles.
Export earnings from tea in September 2022 which made up 11% of merchandise exports, increased by 11.63% y-o-y to US$ 117.82 Mn. This was mainly due to the higher Export of bulk tea (11.95%) and tea packets (6.98%).
Export earnings from Rubber and Rubber Finished products have decreased by 16.91% y-o-y to US$ 82.19 million in September 2022, with poor performance in exports of Pneumatic & Retreated Rubber Tyres & Tubes (-4.67%) and export of Industrial & surgical gloves (-39.12%).
Export earnings from the Electrical & Electronics Components increased by 42.13 % y-o-y to US$ 57.27 Mn in September 2022 with strong performance in exports of Insulated Wires & Cables (42.13%) and Other Electrical & Electronic Products (45.56%).
Export earnings from Seafood decreased by 25% to US$ 16.95 Mn in September 2022 compared to September 2021. Except Shrimps & lobsters, export earnings from Frozen fish and Crabs increased by 2.68% and 94.03% respectively in September 2022.
However, export earnings from Ornamental fish increased by 37.6% to US$ 1.72 Mn in September 2022 compared to September 2021.
In addition, export earnings from Spices and Essential Oils increased by 9.29% to US$ 40.84 Mn in the month of September 2022 compared to month of September 2021 due to the better performance in export of Cinnamon (14.0%) and Pepper (4.37%).
On monthly analysis, except shell products export earnings of kernel products and fiber products categorized under the Coconut based products decreased by 11.95% and 11.62% respectively in September 2022 compared to September 2021.
Major Exports during the period of January – September 2022
For the period of January - September 2022, merchandise exports increased by 11.83% to US$ 9,996.19 Million compared to the corresponding period of 2021. Major product sectors except Tea, Rubber-based products and Spices & Concentrates; Apparel & Textiles, Coconut based products, Electrical & Electronic Components, Gems & Jewellery, Food & Beverages and Other export crops as shown in the table 1 below, recorded increased exports.
Apparel & Textile exports increased by 17.61% to US$ 4,562.67 Mn during the period of January to September 2022 compared to the same period of 2021. Except Made-up Clothing Accessories (-9.36%), Yarn (-13.5%) and Made-up Textile Articles (-2.94%); exports of other sub categories of Apparel & Textiles sector increased.
Export earnings from Rubber & Rubber finished products decreased by 2.18% to US$ 787.87 Mn in January – September 2022 compared with the same period of 2021 attributed to lower exports of Industrial & surgical Gloves (-20.87%). However, exports of Pneumatic & Retreated Rubber Tyres & Tubes increased by 7.26 % during the period of January to September 2022 compared with the same period of 2021.
Meanwhile earnings from export of Electrical and Electronic Components (EEC) increased by 16.08 % to US$ 488.67 Mn in the period of January to September 2022 compared to the corresponding period of 2021. Export of Insulated wires increased by 18.55 % in during the period of January to September 2022 to US$ 62.25 Mn compared with the corresponding period of previous year. In addition, export of Printed Circuits, Switches/ Boards & Panels, Electrical Transformers and Other Electrical & Electronic Products increased by 43.43%, 6.04%, 10.32% and 15.16 % respectively during the period of January to September 2022 compared with the corresponding period of previous year.
Export earnings from Seafood increased by 9.17% to US$ 205.31 Mn in the period of January to September 2022 compared to year 2021 due to the better performance in all the sub categories except Lobsters; Frozen Fish (4.24%), Fresh Fish (23.34%) and Prawns (18.18%).
In addition, earnings from export of ornamental fish increased by 12.27% to US$ 15.55 Mn during the period of January to September 2022 compared to the corresponding period of the year 2021.
For the period of January to September2022, export earnings from Coconut & Coconut based products expanded by 4.9 % to US$ 638.58 Mn. Earnings from all the major categories of Coconut based products increased during the period of January – September 2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021 due to the improved performance in export of Liquid Coconut Milk, Cocopeat, Brooms & Brushes, Mattress Fiber, Activated Carbon, Coconut Oil and Desiccated Coconut.
However, export earnings from Tea decreased by 5.27% to US$ 937.14 Mn during the period of January to September 2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021. Exports of all the sub categories of tea sector except Tea Bags; Tea packets (-5.87%), Bulk Tea (-5.15%,), Instant Tea (-17.37%) and Green Tea (-48.96%) decreased during the period of January to September 2022 compared with the same period of 2021.
Export earnings from Spices and Essential Oils decreased by 14.21% to US$ 275.24 Mn in the period of January to September 2022 compared to year 2021 due to the poor performance in all the sub categories; Cinnamon (-1.28%), pepper (-17.0%), cloves (-57.46%), nutmeg & mace (-9.72%), cardamom (-64.29%) and essential oils (-27.52%).
Sri Lanka’s Export Performance in Major Markets
Strong Export Growth recorded for top 15 export markets in the period of January to September 2022. The single largest export destination of United States of America recorded US$ 2,582.91Mn worth of exports in the period of January to September 2022 – a significant year on year increase of 18.73 % in comparison to US$ 2,175.46 Mn recorded in 2021.
Exports to United Kingdom as the second largest trading partner recorded an increase of 11.68 % to US$ 758.93 Mn during the period of January to September 2022 compared with the corresponding period of previous year.
Exports to FTA Partners
During the period of January to September 2022, exports to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners accounted for 7 % of total merchandise exports with an increase of 10.25 % and amounting to US$ 700.53 Mn.
Although Exports to India has increased by 13.24 % y-o-y to US$ 642.03 Mn, exports to Pakistan has decreased by 14.59% to US$ 58.5 Mn during the period compared to the corresponding period of 2021.
Growth in Exports to India was mainly supported by increased exports of Animal Feed (14.69%), Arecanuts (69.85%), Woven fabrics (77.45%) and Wood pulp (33.85%) from January - September 2022.
Sri Lanka’s Export Performance in Regions
Following table indicates the comparison of region wise exports during the period of January to September2020, 2021 & 2022. The EU accounted for 22.93 % of total Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports.
On a region wise comparison exports to all regions except CIS countries increased during the period of January to September 2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021.
During the period of January to September 2022, breakdown of exports to the top five EU markets which accounted for 78 % of Sri Lanka’s total exports to the EU were; Germany US$ 567.93 Mn (increased by 4.22 %), Italy US$ 477.24 Mn (increased by 13.98 %), Netherlands US$ 304.93 Mn (decreased by 0.35 %), Belgium US$ 240.22 Mn (decreased by 1.19 %) and France US$ 199.88 Mn. (increased by 15.2 %).
Export of Services
The estimated value of services exports for the period of January - September 2022 was 1,455.75 Million dollars, increasing 3.8 % over the corresponding period of 2021. The services exports estimated by EDB consists of ICT/BPM, Construction, Financial services and Transport & Logistics.
Policy & Strategic Planning Division - 24.10.2022
