By Raymart EScopel
ILOILO City – Western Visayas has recorded a 9.4 percent increase in terms of total export in 2013.
From 3 million metric tons (MT) in 2011, the exports of the region continued to increase by 14 percent as it listed 3.4 million MT total export in 2012.
According to the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Coal in Bulk has been topping the list for the last three years among export commodities as it accounted 80.5 percent in 2011. It continued to soar high in 2012 with 93.7 percent contribution in the total export of the region and slightly decreased in 2013 with 3,420,801.7 MT volume or 92.8 percent of the total export of Western Visayas.
The data further disclosed that the top three export destinations of the said commodity include China (85.7 percent), Thailand (11.1 percent) and India (3.2 percent).
Philippine Raw Cane Sugar came next to Coal in Bulk though it posted a fluctuating trend over the past three years. It noted its biggest drop in 2012 with 60.0 percent decrease. However, it slightly recovered in 2013 when it increased by 33.5 percent.
Other top export commodities include Philippine Cane Molasses and Assorted Frozen Marine Products which both listed decreasing trends in 2012 and 2013.
The list also includes Steel Scrap which recovered from 7,216.9 MT in 2012 to 18,789.5 MT in 2013. Yet, the said export volume is still lower by almost half compared to its record of 36,582.1 MT in 2011.
Meanwhile, the import commodities of Western Visayas has been consistently increasing as it rose by 3.7 percent in 2013 topping the 74.5 percent it shared to the total import of the region in 2012.
The significant increase was pointed out to the growing demand of high grade quality Coal which is needed to meet the required quality standard of some industries and power plants.
Coal listed a total volume of 390,221.0 MT in 2013, almost five times higher than the 78,270.5 MT total volume it recorded in 2011.
Other top import commodities were Fertilizers and Liquefied Petroleum Gas which increased over the past three years, and Wheat and Marine Salt which has varied results during the same period./PN
