Earnings from the merchandise exports increased by 2.25 % y-o-y to US$ 1,128.7 Mn in July 2022 as per the data released by the Sri Lanka Customs. This was mainly due to the increase in earnings from export of Apparel & Textiles.
Major product sectors except Rubber based products, Coconut based Products and Spices & Concentrates; Apparel & Textiles, Tea, Electrical & Electronic components, Diamonds, Gems & Jewellery and Food & Beverages as shown in the table 1 below, recorded increased exports in July 2022.
Exports of Apparel & Textiles increased by 21.55% y-o-y to US$ 550.05 Mn in July 2022. The increase was driven by both Apparel and Textiles.
Export earnings from tea in July 2022 which made up 11% of merchandise exports, increased by 2.08% y-o-y to US$ 117.52 Mn. This was mainly due to the higher Export of tea packets (13.57%).
Export earnings from the Electrical & Electronics Components increased by 4.36 % y-o-y to US$ 41.18 Mn in July 2022 with strong performance in exports of Insulated Wires & Cables (8.26%) and Other Electrical & Electronic Products (15.5%).
However, export earnings from Rubber and Rubber Finished products have decreased by 7.67% y-o-y to $ 89.24 million in July 2022, with poor performance in exports of Industrial & Surgical Gloves of Rubber (-20.96%).
On monthly analysis, except shell products export earnings of kernel products and fiber products categorized under the Coconut based products decreased by 25.62% and 15.45% respectively in July 2022 compared to July 2021.
Export earnings from Seafood decreased by 48.99% to US$ 20.65 Mn in July 2022 compared to July 2021. Except shrimps, export earnings from Frozen fish and Fresh fish decreased by 59.5% and 61.36% respectively in July 2022.
Further, export earnings from Ornamental fish decreased by 72.47% to US$ 1.36 Mn in July 2022 compared to July 2021.
In addition, export earnings from Spices and Essential Oils decreased by 26.2% to US$ 33.91 Mn in the month of July 2022 compared to month of July 2021 due to the poor performance in export of Cinnamon (-17.45%), Pepper (-38.36%), Oleoresins (-4.78%) and cloves (-51.87%).
For the period of January – July 2022, merchandise exports increased by 11.8% to US$ 7,604.12 Million compared to the corresponding period of 2021. Major product sectors except Tea, Rubber-based products and Spices & Concentrates; Apparel & Textiles, Coconut based products, Electronics & Electronic Components, Gems & Jewellery, Food & Beverages and Seafood as shown in the table 1 below, recorded increased exports
