Is Sri Lanka's marine products exports competitive? Analysis of fisheries exports of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Fish .export ^i1dustry in Sri Lanka has become a good source of foreign exchange earnings. The fficiency of the sector can be improved considerably through the deve/opment o/its trade system. An attempt was made in this paper to determine the performance of fisheries sector trade, lhe degree of export diversity, the price competitiveness of fisheries producr and the impact of fisheries export for the economic glrowth of the country. The present study is based on ii*n series data oertaining to the period from 1995 to 2004. The data on value of export of fisheries product for Sri Lanka was collected from dffirent volumes of External Tiade Sntistics reports. To study tke composition of export of dffirent fisheries products, percentage export value shores were calculated. The concentration rate of export fisheries products was estimated by using the Hirschman-Herfindhal Index. The Simpson Diversity Index was used to measure the diverity of exports of fisheries products. Export competitiveness of fisheries commodities was calculatra ry computing the Nominal Protection Cofficient (NPC) Results revealed that the compound gro*ih rates of fisheries sector were 0.13 and 0.1 percent in terms of value of exports oid quoititl, oy exports respectively. The export diversification indexfluctuated between 76 percent in 1995 and 68 percent in 2004. An examination of NPC for dffirent fisheries prodicts suc.h as prawns, Crqbs and Lobsters indicated that all the goods were competitive inteinationally, because all the values were less than unity every year A regression analysis confirms that there exists a statistically significant and positive association belween exports and economic grawth in Sri Lanka. If Sii Lanka aims to achieve a high rate of economic growth through promoting exports then it h:as ta minimize the fluctuations in export earnings, maintain export comoetitiveness and promote exports.