Authors:

Abstract

Fish .export industry in Sri Lanka has become a good source of foreign exchange earnings. The efficiency of the sector can be improved considerably through the development of its trade system. An attempt was made in this paper to determine the performance of fisheries sector trade, the degree of export diversity, the price competitiveness of fisheries product and the impact of fisheries export for the economic growth of the country. The present study is based on time series data pertaining to the period from 1995 to 2004. The data on value of export of fisheries product for Sri Lanka was collected from different volumes of External Trade Statistics reports. To study the composition of export of different 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 diversity of exports of fisheries products. Export competitiveness of fisheries commodities was calculated by computing the Nominal Protection Coefficient (NPC). Results revealed that the compound growth rates of fisheries sector were 0.13 and 0.1 percent in terms of value of exports and quantity of exports respectively. The export diversification index fluctuated between 76 percent in 1995 and 68 percent in 2004. An examination of NPC for different fisheries products such as prawns, Crabs and Lobsters indicated that all the goods were competitive internationally, because all the values were less than unity every year. A regression analysis confirms that there exists a statistically significant and positive association between exports and economic growth in Sri Lanka. If Sri Lanka aims to achieve a high rate of economic growth through promoting exports then it has to minimize the fluctuations in export earnings, maintain export competitiveness and promote exports.

AGRIEAST 2010 (9) p.36-41  

Keywords: Marine products, value of exports, Hirschman-Herfindhal Index, Nominal protection Coefficient, Simpson Diversity Index