The apparel and textile exports from the south Asian island nation of Sri Lanka rose by 22.93 per cent year-on-year to $5.415 billion in 2021. While clothing exports increased by 25.7 per cent, exports of woven fabrics surged drastically by 99.84 per cent during the year. Exports to the UK shot up by 15.22 per cent during the 12-month period. In December 2021, the export earnings from apparel and textile improved by 17.88 per cent y-o-y to $531.05 million with a strong performance in exports of apparel (17.56 per cent) and woven fabrics (86.18 per cent), according to the provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB). Sri Lanka’s overall earnings from export were recorded at $15.12 billion from January to December 2021, including the estimated services data from October to December.
Releasing the data, the country’s trade minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena appreciated the contribution of exporters to the economy, despite the unprecedented economic conditions they had to deal with and assured them of more support to reach a $20 billion target this year. At the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2021 organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) in December 2021, Hirdaramani Group director Aroon Hirdaramani said that the Sri Lanka’s apparel sector targets exports worth $8 billion by 2025 by raising investment in local supply chains. Hirdaramani said only around half of Sri Lankan garment exports qualified for the generalised scheme of preferences plus (GSP+) tax concessions due to the rules of origin criteria, which concerns whether the clothing is sufficiently originating from the country applying for concessions.