Philippines' abaca exports down 22.7% in 2012

21 Mar '13

2 min read

Slow demand from major markets has caused Philippines’ revenues from abaca exports to dip by 22.7 percent from previous year’s US$ 140 million to US$ 108.2 million in 2012, the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) statistics show.

Exports of abaca pulp, which constituted around 69 percent of overall abaca exports during 2012, dipped 28.3 percent from US$ 104 million in 2011 to US$ 74.7 million in 2012.

Volume-wise, abaca pulp exports dipped by 26.67 percent from 30,000 tons in 2011 to 22,000 tons in 2012.

Abaca cordage exports also plummeted by 4.2 percent from US$ 16.9 million in 2011 to US$ 16.2 million in terms of value during 2012, while volume-wise it dipped by 37.5 percent from 8,000 tons to 5,000 tons.

However, abaca fabric exports grew by 16.3 percent year-on-year from US$ 0.98 million to US$ 1 million.

Officer-in-Charge of FIDA’s Lanning and Statistics Division, Imelda Marbella said the sector is continuously meeting low demand from major markets like EU and the US.

She added that they are hopeful that private sector would help the sector rebound as a number of private sector enterprises are all set to introduce new products made from abaca.

France, Germany, the US, the UK, China, South Korea, Belgium and Taiwan are the major countries that import abaca fibre and other abaca products from Philippines.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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