Export of primary commodities falls in nine months
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, April 13: Exports of primary commodities stood at $737.59 million during the first nine months of 2003-04, down 1.41pc from the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
According to the external trade figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here, the top export in this category is again the rice. The quantity of rice exported during the period under review was 1,303,707 tons. Down by 3.88pc though, its exports receipts ($454.05 million) were up by 13.14pc. Thus it accounted for 61.56pc of cumulative exports of primary commodities.
The quantity of raw cotton exported during the period under review was 28,018 tons, as against 50,933 tons exported during the corresponding period. The 44.99pc decrease in quantity was nullified by increase in unit price, because the export receipts ($35.22m) showed a decline of $20.50pc.
OTHER MANUFACTURES: Their total exports amounted to $1,546.82m, showing a slight increase of 1.88pc over the corresponding period. However, when measured against overall exports, their share recorded a considerable reversal from 19.33pc of the corresponding period to 17.38pc in July-March 2003-04.
In this category, the traditional items continued to show a lacklustre performance. Thus the carpets, rugs and mats ($160.73 million) slid by 1.39pc, sports ($219.29m) by 2.89pc, tanned leather ($168.05m) by 1.28pc, surgical goods and medical instruments ($94.26m) by 10.74pc and cutlery ($20.05m) by 4.35pc.
Footwear, a relatively new sub-category, indicated considerable stagnation with, quantitatively speaking, their exports declining by 8.96pc. Nevertheless, their export receipts ($63.19m) improved by 2.95pc.
The period under review, however, saw an increase in exports of leather manufactures. Their exports receipts amounted to $305.83m, making this sub-category the top earner of foreign exchange among other manufactures and registering an increase of 6.04pc over the corresponding period.
Among the non-traditional sub-categories, however, chemicals and pharmaceutical products, after a prolonged upward binge, dropped by 1.53pc to the level of $191.24 million.
Engineering goods, another non-traditional group, continued to surge. Their export receipts ($67.47m) shot up by 38.97pc during the period under review. Other non-traditional items, including jewellry and furniture, fetched $16.58m and $6.70m, were up by 5.56pc and 8.78pc, respectively.
OTHERS: This category increased its export receipts ($794.60) million by 46.20pc. Their share in overall exports, consequently, spiralled by 2pc to 8.92pc.
