S Sulawesi's Exports Drop 55 PCT to US$1 Billion
Makassar, S Sulawesi (ANTARA Sulsel) - South Sulawesi's exports in the January-September 2008 period dropped 55.40 percent to US$1.560 billion from US$2.816 billion in the same period a year earlier, an official said.
Head of South Sulawesi's Trade and Industry Office Amal Natsir said here on Monday that the decline in the export value of South Sulawesi province was partly due to the fall in foreign exchange earnings from the region's nickel exports.
Nickel is South Sulawesi's chief export commodity whose export until September this year reached only US$1.132 billion, he said.
In an a progress report he delivered to the South Sulawesi governor's office on Monday, Natsir said the exports of about 40 agricultural commodities since January had earned the state US$300.1 million.
It rose 19.21 percent from that in the corresponding period in 2007 which stood at US$251.7 million, he said.
In the meantime, South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo said last week the province is planning to export 200,000 tons of rice to Malaysia next year.
"South Sulawesi is ready to export rice to Malaysia because the province, with a population of eight million, has a stock surplus of about two million tons," the governor told reporters.
He said that South Sulawesi decided to export rice to Malaysia after the Malaysian government and businesses gave a good response to a South Sulawesi solo exhibition in the neighboring country recently.
During the 'Sulsel Expo' the province displayed a number of its primary commodities such as cacao, rice, maize, sea weed and even cows.
(T.SYS/A014)
