As per data released by Sri Lanka Customs, the earnings from merchandise exports have exceeded USD 11 billion from January to October 2022, the Export Development Board (EDB) says.

This is a growth of 9.33% in comparison to the same period in 2021. The earnings from merchandise exports in the first ten months of last year were recorded as USD 10 million, according to the EDB.

However, earnings from the merchandise exports saw a drop by 8.18% year-on-year to USD 1,094.8 million in October 2022, caused mainly due to the decrease in export earnings from apparel & textiles, tea, rubber-based products, coconut-based products, spices & essential oils and fisheries sector.

Further, the impact of the global crisis also affected the deceased in export earnings of major products, the EDB said further in a press release on Sri Lanka’s export performance for the month of October 2022.

Monthly Merchandize Export Performance, 2020 - October 2022 in Millions of US$

Sources: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Customs & Sri Lanka Export Development Board

Major Exports in October 2022

Major product sectors except Gems & Jewellery and Electrical & Electronic components; export earnings from Apparel & Textiles, Tea, Rubber based Products, Coconut based Products, Spices & Concentrates, Food & Beverages and Seafood sectors recorded declines in October 2022 as shown in the table 1 below.

Exports of Apparel & Textiles decreased by 13.19 % y-o-y to US$ 441.89 Mn in October 2022. The decrease was driven by both 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 Pneumatic & Retreated Rubber Tyres & Tubes (-6.86%) and export of Industrial & surgical gloves (-8.74%).

Export earnings from the Electrical & 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 & Cables (12.76%) and Other Electrical & Electronic Products (17.2%).

In addition, 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 categorized 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, Shrimps 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 during the period of January – October 2022

For the period of January - 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 & Concentrates; earnings from export of Apparel & Textiles, Coconut based products, Electronics & Electronic Components, Gems & Jewellery and Food & Beverages sectors recorded increases as shown in the table 1 below.

Apparel & Textile exports increased by 14.04 % to US$ 5,004.58 Mn during the period of January to October 2022 compared to the same 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 & Textiles sector increased.

For the period of January to October 2022, export earnings from Coconut & Coconut based products expanded by 3.53 % to US$ 710.97 Mn. Earnings from all the major categories of Coconut based products increased during the period of January – October 2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021 due to the improved performance in export of Cocopeat, Brooms & Brushes and Activated Carbon.

Meanwhile earnings from export of Electrical and Electronic Components (EEC) increased by 15.04 % to US$ 400.32 Mn in the period of January to October 2022 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. In addition, export of Printed Circuits, Switches/ Boards & Panels, Electrical Transformers and Other Electrical & Electronic Products increased by 53.87 %, 12.31 %, 9.85 % and 15.39 % respectively during the period of January to October 2022 compared with the corresponding period of previous year.

Export earnings from Seafood increased by 5.83 % to US$ 224.88 Mn in the period of January to October 2022 compared to year 2021 due to the better performance in all the sub categories except Lobsters; Frozen Fish (2.31 %), Fresh Fish (17.25 %) and Shrimps (8.59 %).

In addition, earnings from 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 & Rubber finished products decreased by 2.53 % to US$ 874.18 Mn in January – October 2022 compared with the same period of 2021 attributed to lower exports of Industrial & surgical Gloves (-16.48 %). Despite the decrease recorded in Rubber exports, earnings from exports of Pneumatic & Retreated Rubber Tyres & Tubes increased by 6.21 % during the period of January to October 2022 compared with the same period of 2021.

In addition, export earnings from Tea decreased by 4.59 % to US$ 1,045.84 Mn during the period of January to October 2022 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 during the period of January to October 2022 compared with the same 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 & mace (-2.06 %), cardamom (-62.07 %) and essential oils (-27.28%).

Table 1: Merchandise Export Performance

Values in US$ Mns

Sri Lanka’s Export 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 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: Top 15 Export Destinations

Values in US$ Mns

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.

During the period of January to October 2022, 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.

Sri Lanka’s Export Performance in Regions

Following table indicates the comparison of region wise exports during the period of January to October 2021 & 2022. 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 October 2022 compared with the corresponding period of 2021.

Table 3: Export Regions

Values in US$ Mns

During the period of January to October 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$ 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$ 223.48 Mn. (increased by 12.73 %).

Export of Services

The estimated value of services exports for the period of January - October 2022 was 1,619.66 Million dollars, increasing 2.64 % over the corresponding period of 2021. The services exports estimated by EDB consists of ICT/BPM, Construction, Financial services and Transport & Logistics.