Exports grew by 16 per cent to $12.18 billion in the fiscal year 2006-07 to June, posting a slower growth than in the year before. Incomes from export sector figured $10.53 billion in the 2005-06 fiscal, which were up by 22 per cent from the previous year’s total, Export Promotion Bureau data showed on July 30. Lower returns on larger shipment featured the performance of the manufacturing sector in the last fiscal year, while, in contrast, the primary products saw higher growth in earning than in volume. Total export index was up by 16.33 per cent on volume, but price index was down by 0.67 per cent.

Export of primary products earned $832 million with volume index up by 2.39 per cent and price 5.33 per cent, while manufactured goods earned $11.346 billion with volume up by 16.32 per cent and price index down by 1.11 per cent. Earnings in the last fiscal were three per cent less the official target set for the whole year mainly due to lower-than-expected sales of knitwear, a key item in the basket, officials of the bureau said. The break-up of different categories of products in the export basket shows that a few products including woven garment, frozen foods, home-textiles and footwear performed well, while at least 13 potential products missed their respective earning targets set for the period

Woven garments earned $4.66 billion in the July-June period, exceeding the previous year’s earnings and also the target set for the year to June 2007. Earnings from knitwear stood at $4.55 billion, which was less the target but 19 per cent higher than the previous year’s amount. The growth was 39 per cent in the year before. Earnings from knitwear, jute goods and finished leather were much below the expected levels, slowing down the overall export growth.

The EPB data also showed export earnings from frozen foods, second largest foreign exchange earner, grew by 12 per cent to $515 million. Export items that showed impressive growths and crossed the targets are-home textile with 55 per cent growth to $257 million and footwear (made of natural or artificial leather) 42 per cent to $136 million. Products that earned more than the previous year but trailed the targets include finished leather with $266 million, pharmaceuticals $28 million and ceramics $30 million.

Earnings from jute goods fell 11 per cent to $321 million, raw jute one per cent to $147 million, agricultural products (vegetables, tobacco and others) seven per cent to $88 million, textile fabrics two per cent to $36 million and bi-cycle 20 per cent to $54 million.
Tea faced a massive slump of 42 per cent to $7 million.