Zanzibar exports down 14 per cent

Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar exports dwindled by 14.6 per cent during the year ending March 2019 after clove exports fell by 94.4 per cent, a Bank of Tanzania (BoT) report has shown.

The BoT’s Monthly Economic Review for April 2019 has indicated that exports of goods and services fell to $196.6 million in the year ending March 2019 compared to $230.1 million in the year ending March 2018.

Explaining the shrinkage, the report noted that, “the decrease was on account of a fall in cloves exports”.

During the year ending March 2019, cloves exports were lower compared to the year ending March 2018 on account of the “cyclical nature of the crop”.

According to the report, earnings from clove exports fell by 94.4 per cent to $3.22 million in March 2019 compared to $57.25 million in the corresponding period in 2018.

The report shows that cloves exported during in March 2019 amounted to only 400 tonnes compared with 7,200 tonnes exported in a similar period in 2018. However, unit price per tonne for the commodity rose by 1.3 per cent to $8,046.3 from $7.939 during the period under review.

Earnings from seaweeds, which are the second major export, rose to $3.91 million from $3.73 million.

, the product export has also increased to 9,200 tonnes on March 2019, compared with 9,100 tonnes recorded in the corresponding month in 2018.

The seaweeds unit price per tonne rose by 2.8 per cent to $422.5 from $410.9 respectively.