Africa-Press – Tanzania. ZANZIBAR’s exports have decreased by almost 22 per cent for the year ending March blaming unfavourable global markets.
The isles exports dropped to 3.5bn/- in March from 4.49bn/- during the same period last year, the Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) said yesterday.
OCGS Section Head, Trade and Tax Statistics, Asia Hassan Mussa, said South Africa, Denmark, China, Vietnam and Indonesia were the top five export markets in March, accounting for 75.7 per cent of the total value of export goods.
South Africa and Denmark spent 1.05bn/- and 590m/- on purchases from Zanzibar, respectively, the statistics showed, indicating further that China, Vietnam and Indonesia spent 418.7m/-, 365m/- and 232.8m/-, respectively.
The main exports, as per Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), were food and live animals; beverages and tobacco; crude materials, inedible and except fuels; chemical and related products; as well as machinery and transport equipment.
Food and live animals, as per SITC, includes cloves and other spices—seaweeds and related sea products.
Also, OCGS said total imports decreased by 9.3 per cent to 84.47bn/- from 93.12bn/- in March 2020, leading to an 80.97bn/- deficit in the balance of trade.
The foreign purchases also decreased by 7.2 per cent compared to February’s 90.98bn/-.
Ms Mussa said mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials accounted for over 43 per cent—36.417bn/- of the total imports, trailed by manufactured goods, which contributed 13.7 per cent of all imports.
Other imports categories with their values in brackets were machinery and transport equipment (8.7bn/-); food and live animals (7.56bn/-); miscellaneous manufactured articles (7.09bn/-); chemical and related products (6.47bn/-); as well as animals and vegetable oils, fats and waxes (4.78bn/-).
During the period, the statistician said, the Indian Ocean’s semi-autonomous archipelago imported consumer goods worth 23.36bn/-, a 4.1 per cent decrease from March 2020.
The country registered imported capital goods of 11.95bn/-, which dwindled by 69.5 per cent over the same period last year.
The top five sources of imports, which contributed over 75 per cent of the total volume during the month, according to Ms Mussa, were the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Malaysia and Brazil.
