Apparel exports plunge further in September

Sri Lanka’s main export engine, apparel, saw its shipments plunge further in September worsening the sector’s status quo.

Apparel exports in September were down sharply by 26% to $ 332 million whilst performance in the first nine months was down by 20.5% to $ 3.4 billion.

“September was a bad month. The industry was hoping to see some signs of slight recovery but that may now be October at best,” an apparel industry source told the Daily FT. 

In September exports to the USA decreased by 34.37% year on year to 122, exports to the EU (excluding exports to UK) also decreased by 24.54% to $ 106.79 million. At the same time exports to the UK and to other countries also decreased by 4.61% to $ 54 million and 25.19% to $ 50 million respectively in September 2023.

In the first nine months overall exports to the USA decreased by 25.19% to $ 1,36 billion, exports to the EU (excluding exports to UK) decreased by 18.15% to $ 1 billion over the same period in the year 2022. At the same time overall exports to the UK and to other countries also have decreased by 16% to $ 480 million and 15.94% to $ 538 million respectively over the same period in the year 2022.

Industry sources renewed their call for a more favourable environment if exports pick up in the remainder of 2023 whilst external market conditions remain challenging.