Jamaica records increase earnings from exports

By Douglas McIntosh

KINGSTON, Jamaica, (JIS) – Jamaica earned just over US$1.4 billion from exports in 2021. Data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) show that this was 15.2 percent higher than the 2020 outturn.

Director-General of STATIN Carol Coy said the increase was largely spurred by higher exports of mineral fuels, up 75.5 percent, informed that domestic export earnings climbed by 10 percent last year to US$1.28 billion. This was due to a rise in manufacturing and agriculture industry exports, which increased by 30.8 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively.

Coy noted that increased exports for manufacturing largely resulted from hikes in the outflows of ‘Other Manufactured Products’, up 49 percent, and ‘Food, Beverages and Tobacco’, up 14.5 percent.

“Over the past three years, the [manufacturing] industry’s share to total domestic exports moved from 30.8 percent in 2018 to 56.3 percent in 2021.” The director-general said increased exports of yams, fruits and beverage and coffee, were the main contributors to the rise in the agricultural industry’s outturn.

“Exports of yam were 4.4 percent above the US$35 million in 2020 while earnings from other fruits and beverage and coffee rose by 34.3 percent and 8.9 percent respectively,” Coy advised, however, that earnings from mining and quarrying totalled US$465.2 million, representing a 10.6 percent decline when compared to 2020, while adding that alumina and bauxite exports fell in 2021.

Director-General of STATIN, Coy, said despite increased export earnings in 2021, revenue was 12.9 per ent below the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level in 2019.