Business

Sri Lanka’s Apparel Exports Touches New High In 2017

Despite recent pressures to change and innovate in the garments and apparel sector, Sri Lanka has reasons to celebrate as its apparel exports hit the USD 48.1 billion mark in 2017, which is an all-time record. The record was announced recently by Sri Lanka’s ministry of Industry and Commerce.

In fact, shipment of apparels happens to be the main industrial exports from Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lankan ministry officials the quoted figure indicated a 3 percent increase over the corresponding export figures for 2016.

The Joint Apparel Association Forum and Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association issued statements to the effect that the month of December 2017 yielded rich results. The apparel exports for the month went up by 21 percent to USD 452 million. This works out to be the highest monthly earnings and also tops the previous year’s corresponding figure.

The statement further said, “Around 45% of the apparel exports for the year 2017 went to the United States, with figures standing at USD 2.16 billion and a robust 42% export went to the European Union (EU). The corresponding export figures for EU stood at USD 2.02 billion.

Making a Y-o-Y comparison with 2016, Sri Lanka’s exports to the US grew by 2% and the exports to the EU increased by 4.13%.

Ministry officials citing these encouraging figures pitched in for investments in Sri Lanka for the apparel sector. “The industry has shown a robust growth and the United States and the European Union are our largest buyers. We can further diversify and export to other Asian nations as we enjoy Free Trade Agreements with many of them,” the ministry official said.