Lower demand pulls down abaca export earnings

MANILA, Philippines – Export earnings from abaca products went down 4.4 percent in the first eight months of 2015 due to lower demand in the United States and Asia, the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) reported.

Export earnings from January to August this year reached $76.33 million, down from $79.82 million in the same period last year, the agency said.

Abaca pulp posted a minimal 1.1 percent decrease in exports to $50.59 million from $51.13 million. Furthermore, the volume of abaca pulp fell in all export destinations except in Europe where shipments rose 14.5 percent to 11,531.8 metric tons (MT) from 10,072.4 MT in the same period last year.

Shipment volume to the United States suffered a 67 percent dip to 358.9 MT from 1,083.1 MT while volume of shipments to Asia went down 37.8 percent to 2,422.4 MT from 3,897 MT in the year-ago period.

The total volume of abaca pulp exports was five percent lower in the first eight months of the year to 14,313.1 MT from 15,052.5 MT in the same period last year.

Likewise, value of outbound shipments of fabrics and fiber crafts registered declines of 47.6 percent and 71.7 percent, respectively, for the period.

Fabrics export dropped to $690,883 from $1.32 million while fiber crafts export plummeted to $3.08 million from $10.9 million last year.

Meanwhile, the value of raw fiber exports surged 60 percent to $13.52 million from $8.46 million in the comparative period, with total volume of exports increasing 45.7 percent to 69,279 bales weighing 125 kilograms each in the first eight months of 2015 from 47,546 bales.

Exports of cordage, on the other hand, was placed at $8.45 million, up 5.4 percent from $8.01 million in the same period in 2014.

Abaca is a material used for making tea bags, casing of meat sausages, surgical masks and cigarette paper. Abaca products are sold to countries like the US, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, China, Taiwan and South Korea, among others.