Earnings from the merchandise exports increased by 2.25 % year-on-year to USD 1,128.7 million in July 2022 as per the data released by the Sri Lanka Customs, the Export Development Board (EDB) says.

This was mainly due to the increase in earnings from export of Apparel & Textiles.

According to the EDB, major product sectors (except rubber-based products, coconut-based products and spices & concentrates, apparel & textiles, electrical & electronic components, diamonds, gems & jewellery and food & beverages) have recorded increased exports last month.

Export of apparel & textiles has increased by 21.55% y-o-y to USD 550.05 million in July 2022. The increase was driven by both apparel and textiles.

Meanwhile, export earnings from tea in July 2022, which made up 11% of merchandise exports, increased by 2.08% y-o-y to USD 117.52 million. 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 USD 41.18 million in July 2022 with strong performance in exports of insulated wires & cables (8.26%) and other electrical & electronic products (15.5%), the EDB said further.

However, export earnings from rubber and rubber-finished products have decreased by 7.67% y-o-y to USD 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 fibre 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 USD 20.65 million 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 USD 1.36 million in July 2022 compared to July 2021.

In addition, export earnings from spices and essential oils decreased by 26.2% to USD 33.91 million 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%).

With regard to Sri Lanka’s export performance in major markets, the EDB said strong export growth was recorded for top 10 export markets in the period of January to July 2022.

The single largest export destination of the United States of America recorded USD 1,988.43 million worth of exports in the period of January to July 2022 – a significant year-on-year increase of 21.89 % in comparison to USD 1,631.36 million recorded in 2021.

Exports to United Kingdom as the second largest trading partner recorded an increase of 14.59% to USD 602.01 million during the period of January to July 2022 compared with the corresponding period of previous year.

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