Sri Lanka has untapped export potential of US $ 7.4bn: ITC

• Further potential present in tea and apparel sectors
• UK identified as target market to push exports of black tea
• US $ 313.4mn untapped potential for apparel exports 
• Says cashew nuts, in shell, best option for export diversification

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Sri Lanka has an untapped export potential of US $ 7.4 billion, which could be bridged by increasing further focus on the country’s top-performing industries, the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) International Trade Centre 
(ITC) said.

The Export Potential Map of the ITC shows that the products with the greatest export potential from Sri Lanka to the world are within the tea and apparel sectors. From the tea industry, the current untapped potential is in packaged black tea (over three kilogramme packs), whereas from the apparel sector, it 
is brassieres.

According to the ITC, black tea shows the largest absolute difference between the potential and actual exports in value terms, leaving room to realise additional exports worth US $ 458.8 million.

For black tea, Sri Lanka has an export potential of US $ 1.1 billion, whereas the actual exports of that product line currently amounts to only US $ 720.6 million.

The United Kingdom was identified as the target market to push the exports of black tea, as there is an export potential of US $ 89 million. The actual exports of black tea to the UK from Sri Lanka amount to only 
US $ 5.2 million.

For the apparel sector, there is an untapped potential of US $ 313.4 million that Sri Lanka could further explore.
“The markets with the greatest potential for Sri Lanka’s exports of brassieres are the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK) and Germany.

Germany shows the highest potential in value terms with room for additional exports worth US $ 56.5 million,” the ITC revealed.

Meanwhile, the ITC showed that Sri Lanka’s best option for export diversification as of now lies with cashew nuts, in shell. However, it showed that the potential also exists for telephone sets and other voice/image transmission apparatus and crude palm oil.  

 The Export Potential Map is a comprehensive tool by the ITC to allow countries and businesses to spot export opportunities for trade development. Made available free of charge, the tool is updated on a daily basis to allow countries and businesses have access to the latest data that have already been crunched by the ITC.

It has information of over 220 countries and territories, using data reported by 191 nations. Data for non-reporting nations is derived from mirror statistics.