"In December 2020, West Sumatra's exports reached US$231.06 million, but in January 2021 the vale fell to US$212.08 million," Herum Fajarwati, Head of West Sumatra's Statistics Office (BPS), said here on Sunday.
The province's major exports in January 2021 included animal and vegetable fat and oil valued at US$166.06 million, and rubber and rubber products At US$15.42 million.
Among main destination countries of the exports were Pakistan with total export value at US$65.97 million and India at US$45.01 million.
In contrast, in January 2021, West Sumatra's import value stood at US$17.61 million, an increase of 44.56 percent compared to that in the previous month.
The province's imports included mineral fuels valued US$10.33 million, and food industry's waste at US$3.66 million.
From January to February 2021, 1.8 thousand tons of mangosteen from West Sumatra were exported to China using special aircraft from Minangkabau International Airport.
Padang's Agriculture Quarantine Head Iswan Haryanto said that despite flight access restriction owing to the pandemic, shipments of agricultural commodities from West Sumatra to foreign countries was not affected significantly.
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The province's mangosteen exporters had chartered special aircraft for a Padang-Guangzhou flight route, he said.
State-owned cement company PT Semen Padang also exported cement and clinker to three destination countries, namely Maldives, Australia and Banglasdeh in January and February 2021.
"From early January to mid-February 2021, the Semen Indonesia Group, through PT Semen Padang, had exported 333,532,391 metric tons of cement and clinker," the Group's Sale Manager Rahman Kurniawan said.
The cement and clinker exports continued to increase, because cement and clinker shipments were still ongoing, he added.
The company exported two types of cement and clinker, namely OPC 52.5 N with an export volume reaching 15,000 MT to Australia, and OPC 42.5 N reaching 21,924,180 MT which was exported to Maldives.
Meanwhile, the Type I clinker was exported to Bangladesh with a total volume of more than 296,608,211 MT.
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Translator: Ikhwan W, Fardah
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
