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SIB Says Exports went Up In January
posted (February 22, 2017)

The latest figures from the Statistical Institute of Belize show that exports in January of 2017 increased quite significantly, up 51.2 percent from January 2016. And most of it is thanks to sugar where earnings were up 10 million dollars compared to last year. Â The SIB reports that Belize’s other major exports, banana, crude petroleum and marine products, also performed well in January.  Banana sales shot up by $3 million dollars.  but the news for citrus isn't quite so good.  Citrus was the only major export to experience decreased earnings in January 2017, falling from $3.5 million to $1.6 million. The SIB says it is due to a drop in orange concentrate exports, but Citrus Products Chairman Doug Singh says it’s a little more involved than that.  He says, quote, “demand last year was high so we did not come into January with sufficient inventory for sale….Secondly,  the damage caused by Hurricane Earl in August eliminated our first crop which would generally be processed in the last quarter of 2016 and sold in 2016-17.â€￾

And while that is the story for exports, on the side of imports, those went up by 7.7 percent or $10.1 million dollars when compared to January of 2016.  More than half of that went to the ‘Commercial Free Zones’, with increased purchases of cigarettes.  the SIB notes that imports of corn oil went up by $1.6 million dollars.  

Notably, imports ofʉ۪Machinery and Transport Equipment’ fell by $3.6 million mostly due to decreased purchases of four cylinder vehicles and liquid transformers.

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7 News Belize