Zanzibar export earnings rise as services receipts jump

Dar es Salaam. Annual earnings from export of goods and services during a year ending April 2018 in Zanzibar increased by 34.8 percent to $238.8 million in the year ending April 2018 compared to $177.2 million in the similar month last year, a recent Monthly Economic Review published by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) shows.

The increase was due to increase of services receipts and the major export commodities particularly cloves and seaweeds, which altogether accounted for 80.2 per cent of total earnings from goods exports.

Earnings from export of cloves rose to $57.2 million from $17 million in the year ending April 2017, owing to upsurge of export volume.

The volume of cloves exported during the month of April 2018 was 7, 200 tonnes compared to 2, 200 tonnes owing to bumper harvests.

The BoT review shows that the increase of clove earnings was driven by the upsurge of annual world commodity price of the produce by 3.2 per cent during the year ending April 2018 compared to last year.

The annual world commodity price for cloves also increased from $7, 749.9 per tonne in April 2017 to $7, 996.1 as recorded in the same month in 2018, thanks to high global demand.

In a regard to seaweeds, exports increased to 11,420 tonnes valued at $4.0 million from 3,399 tonnes valued at $1.6 million in the year ending April 2017.

Exports of fish and fish products more than doubled.