Apparel exports cross US $ 3.3bn for January-July period

• This is a 3.5% increase from US $ 3.2bn reported for same period in 2021
• Apparel exports cross US $ 500mn for second consecutive month in July
• SL earned US $ 5.4bn from garment and textile exports in 2021 and expenditure on textile and textile articles was US $ 3bn
• SL has set an ambitious garment and textile export target of US $ 8 billion for 2025

The export revenue of Sri Lanka’s apparel sector for the first seven months of the year crossed the US $ 3 billion mark, with July recording a positive performance, which affirms the industry’s ability to sustain resilience. According to the provisional data released by the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), the export revenue for the January-July 2022 period totalled US $ 3.31 billion, a 3.53 percent increase from the corresponding period of 2021.  

The cumulative analysis for the first seven months for the year ending in July showed that the exports to the USA totalled US $ 1.41 billion (27.12 percent increase), whereas the exports to the EU and UK totalled US $ 963 million (14.56 percent increase) and US $ 455 million (18.04 increase). 

The textile and apparel exports for the month of July fetched US $ 522.14 million. It was the second consecutive month in 2022 that the industry’s export revenue crossed the US $ 500 million mark. In June, the apparel exports recorded a revenue of US $ 536 million, the highest ever to be recorded for a calendar month. The previous highest was in March 2019, where an export revenue of US $ 504 million was achieved.

Sri Lanka’s garment and textile export income rose 23 percent to US $ 5.4 billion in 2021 from a year ago. The garment exports income alone rose 26 percent to Rs.4.95 billion.   Meanwhile, Sri Lanka imported little over US $ 3 billion worth of textile and textile articles for 2021, up 31 percent from a year ago.  The garment and textile industry has a US $ 8 billion export target set for 2025.