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Traditional exports value drops
2008-02-10 09:52:26
By Imani Lwinga
The value of traditional exports dropped by 22.2 per cent to US$22.8 million mainly on account of significant decline in the export volume of cotton during last December, the central bank said in its latest monthly economic review.
Goods imports went down by 25.5 per cent to US$469.2 million mainly due to a decline in all import sub categories.
Capital goods import declined by 16.1 per cent to US$150 million following a fall in importation of transport equipments and machinery goods.
Available statistics indicate that Tanzania managed to export 12,922.19 tons of cotton compared to 6,875.53 tons of cotton exported in November 2007, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) noted in its latest Monthly Economic Review.
``The development in cotton exports was partly attributed to unfavourable weather condition,`` the Bank noted.
On the other hand, BoT said some improvements in export volumes of cashewnuts were observed in December 2007.
The development was partly due to willingness of farmers to sell their crops under the newly introduced receipt payment system.
Regarding unit prices, tobacco and cotton registered declines of 30.3 per cent and 16.4 per cent to US$2,142.9 per ton and US$ 1,054.9 per ton, respectively. The drop in export unit is partly due to the deterioration in the quality of exports.
On annual basis, traditional exports increased 8.6 per cent to US$ 290.1 million compared to US$267.1 million recorded in the previous year.
The value of exported coffee, cotton and sisal improved during the year ending December 2007 as a result of improvement in the export volumes and unit prices.
In the other hand, dismal performance was recorded in cashewnuts export following significant decline in export volumes.
During the period under review, the export volumes of cashewnut dropped by 63.5 per cent to 24,206.14 tons because of price disagreement between the buyers and farmers.
Meanwhile, non-traditional exports went down from US$168.1 million recorded in November 2007 to US$148.7 million during the month under review, following a significant decline in manufactured goods, re-exports and other exports mainly edible vegetables and oil seeds.
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