Minister Bathiudeen was meeting his top officials on 29 May in Colombo discussing the latest provisional exports details for the January-April 2014 period.

Accordingly, this year’s January-April provisional exports surged to $ 3.518 Bn while the comparative January-April 2013 exports totals stood at $3.059 Bn, registering a 15.99% growth for 2014. This year’s Jan-April provisional export growth is led by fisheries, agricultural and industrial exports-mirroring and sustaining this year’s first quarter provisional export surge. Fisheries exports grew by 20% to $ 95.68 Mn, agricultural exports grew by 19% to $ 823.07 Mn and Industrial exports grew by 13.14% to a strong $ 2585.88 Mn.  Within the growth of industrial exports is the apparel exports increase by 21% to $ 1592.8 Mn. Within agricultural exports sector, tea grew by 14.4% to $ 498.69 Mn, while coconut exports grew by a strong 62% to $ 162.95 Mn. Manufacturing exports which includes processed foods, leather and footwear, rubber, paper which are part of industrial exports, also increased similar to first quarter rise, growing by 14.9% to $ 766.9 Mn. January-April unclassified exports rebounded from 2013 Jan-April’s $ 4.31Mn to $13.85 Mn-a 220% increase.( KH/SI )