Sri Lanka’s export performance in October 2022
Earnings from merchandise exports decreased by 8.18% y-o-y to US$ 1,094.8 mn in October 2022 as per the data released by the Sri Lanka Customs. This was mainly due to the decrease in export earnings from apparel and textiles, tea, rubber based products, coconut based products, spices and essential oils and fisheries sector. Further, the impact of the global crisis also contributed to the decrease in export earnings of major products.
Major exports
Major product sectors except Gems and jewellery and electrical and electronic components; export earnings from apparel and textiles, tea, rubber based products, coconut based products, spices and concentrates, food and beverages and seafood sectors recorded declines in October 2022 as shown in the table 1 below.
Exports of apparel and textiles decreased by 13.19% y-o-y to US$ 441.89 mn in October 2022. The decrease was driven by apparel and textiles.
Export earnings from Tea in October 2022 which made up 11% of merchandise exports, slightly decreased by 0.76% y-o-y to US$ 108.7 mn. This was mainly due to the lower Export of bulk tea (-1.22%).
Export earnings from Rubber and Rubber Finished products have decreased by 6.1% y-o-y to US$ 86.3 million in October 2022, with poor performance in exports of pneumaticand retreated rubber tyres and tubes (-6.86%) and export of industrial and surgical gloves (-8.74%).
Export earnings from the electrical and electronics components increased by 20.53% y-o-y to US$ 46.26 mn in October 2022 with strong performance in exports of insulated wires and cables (12.76%) and other electrical and electronic products (17.2%).
Export earnings from spices and essential oils decreased by 18.95% to US$ 36.39 mn in the month of October 2022 compared to month of October 2021 due to the poor performance in export of cinnamon (-19.44%) and pepper (-32.7%).
On monthly analysis, except kernel products export earnings of fiber products and shell products categorised under the Coconut based products increased by 19.67% and 19% respectively in October 2022 compared to October 2021. Export earnings from Seafood decreased by 20% to US$ 19.56 mn in October 2022 compared to October 2021. except crabs, export earnings from frozen fish, fresh fish, shrimp and other edible fish decreased by 14.62%, 21.44%, 52.16% and 31.46% respectively in October 2022.
However, export earnings from ornamental fish increased by 8.98% to US$ 1.82 mn in October 2022 compared to October 2021.
Major exports from January to October 2022
For the period January to October 2022, merchandise exports increased by 9.33% to US$ 11,076 million compared to the corresponding period of 2021. Major product sectors except tea, rubber-based products and spices and concentrates; earnings from export of apparel and textiles, coconut based products, electronics and electronic components, gems and jewellery and food and beverages sectors recorded increases as shown in the table 1 below.
Apparel and textile exports increased by 14.04% to US$ 5,004.58 mn during the period of January to October 2022 compared to the corresponding period of 2021. except made-up clothing accessories (-1.21%), yarn (-11.17%), made-up textile articles (-7.36%) and textile floor coverings (carpets, mats, floor coverings etc)(-18.53%) ;exports of other sub categories of apparel and textiles sector increased. Export earnings from coconut and coconut based products expanded by 3.53% to us$ 710.97 mn. earnings from all the major categories of coconut-based products increased due to the improved performance in export of cocopeat, brooms and brushes and activated carbon.
Earnings from export of Electrical and Electronic Components (EEC) increased by 15.04% to US$ 400.32 mn compared to the corresponding period of 2021. Export of insulated wires increased by 17.97% in during the first ten months of 2022 to US$ 68.79 mn compared with the corresponding period of 2021. Export of printed circuits, switches/ boards and panels, electrical transformers and other electrical and electronic products increased by 53.87%, 12.31%, 9.85% and 15.39 compared with the corresponding period of previous year.
Export earnings from seafood increased by 5.83% to US$ 224.88 mn due to the better performance in all the sub categories except Lobsters; frozen fish (2.31%), fresh fish (17.25%) and shrimps (8.59%).
Earnings from the export of ornamental fish increased by 11.92% to US$ 17.37 mn during the period of January to October 2022 compared to the corresponding period of the year 2021.
However, export earnings from Rubber and Rubber finished products decreased by 2.53% to US$ 874.18 mn in January – October 2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021 attributed to lower exports of Industrial and surgical Gloves (-16.48%). Despite the decrease recorded in rubber exports, earnings from exports of pneumatic and retreated rubber tyres and tubes increased by 6.21%. compared with the corresponding period of 2021.
Export earnings from tea decreased by 4.59% to US$ 1,045.84 compared with the corresponding period of 2021. Exports of all the sub categories of tea sector except tea bags; tea packets (-4.99%), bulk tea (-4.53%,), instant tea (-12.34%) and green tea (-31.63%) decreased compared with the corresponding period of 2021.
Export earnings from spices and essential oils decreased by 14.79% to US$ 311.63 mn in the period of January to October 2022 compared to year 2021 due to the poor performance in all the sub categories; Cinnamon (-4.07%), pepper (-8.71%), cloves (-58.1%), nutmeg and mace (-2.06%), cardamom (-62.07%) and essential oils (-27.28%).
Table 1:
Performance in major markets
Strong export growth recorded for top 15 export markets in the period of January to October 2022. The single largest export destination of United States of America recorded US$ 2,822.89 mn worth of exports in the period of January to October 2022– a significant year on year increase of 14.44% in comparison to US$ 2,455.74 mn recorded in 2021.
Exports to the United Kingdom as the second largest trading partner recorded an increase of 7.96% to US$ 829.15 mn during the period of January to October 2022 compared with the corresponding period of previous year.
Table 2:
Exports to FTA partners
In October 2022, exports to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners which represented 8.4% of Sri Lanka’s total merchandise exports grew by 8.36% y-o-y to US$ 91.63 Million. Increases in exports were recorded to India, (↑7.9% to US$ 83.82 million) and Pakistan (↑12.7% to US$ 7.81 Million) due to growing exports of Petroleum oils. Exports to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners accounted for 7% of total merchandise exports with an increase of 10.02% and amounting to US$ 792.16 mn. Although exports to India has increased by 12.61% y-o-y to US$ 725.85 mn, exports to Pakistan has decreased by 12.08% to US$ 66.31 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 (11.4%), arecanuts (61.66%), woven fabrics (67.3%) and wood pulp (29.77%) from January-October 2022.
Regional performance
The USA and EU accounted for 48% of total Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports. On a region wise comparison exports to all regions except African and CIS countries increased during the period of January to October2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021.
Table 3:
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$ 633.81 mn (increased by 3.96%), Italy US$ 535.84 mn (increased by 11.5%), Netherlands US$ 353.26 mn (increased by 2.02%), Belgium US$ 266.84 mn (decreased by 2.3%) and France US$ 223.48Mn. (increased by 12.73%).
Export of services
The estimated value of services exports from January to October 2022 was 1,619.66 million dollars, increasing 2.64% over the corresponding period of 2021. The services exports estimated by the EDB consists of ICT/BPM, construction, financial services and transport and logistics. – Policy and Strategic Planning Division, EDB
Monthly merchandise export performance, 2020 – October 2022 in millions of US$