Also the export volume dropped to 3.6 million tons from 3.77 million tons in the same period."Medan (ANTARA News) - The export value of North Sumatra was recorded at US$3.87 billion in the first five months of 2014 or 4.62 percent lower year-on-year.
"In the January-May period last year, the province recorded US$4.06 billion in export earning, shrinking to only US$3.87 billion in the same period this year," head of the provincial office of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Bismark S. Pardamean said here on Tuesday.
"Also the export volume dropped to 3.6 million tons from 3.77 million tons in the same period," he said.
Bismark attributed the decline in export income to price falls of crude palm oil and rubber, which are among the provinces main export earners.
A decline was also recorded in the provinces imports - down 2.12 percent from US$2.173 billion, therefore, significant surplus was still recorded by the province, he noted.
Executive secretary of the North Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Association of Rubber Companies (Gapkindo) Edy Irwansyah said the price of natural rubber had continued to be on the decline.
In July, for example, the price of rubber is US$1,772 per kg.
Rubber exports from North Sumatra were valued at US$704.515 million in the first five months of 2014 down from US$963.983 million year-on-year.
Indonesia is the worlds largest producer and exports of CPO and the worlds second largest for natural rubber , and North Sumatra is one of the countrys main producers of the two commodities.
(Uu.H-ASG/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
