And while imports were marginally up, exports were down almost 10% - mainly because of the slump in the agro-productive sector.
Here's more:
Tiffany Vasquez, Statistician
"This represented a decrease of 9.5% or $32.6 million when compared to that same period last year. Now while on this surface an almost 10% drop in total export earnings might be viewed as modest, a very different picture emerges if one were to delve into the details as key export commodities suffered notable losses during the period."
"So let's go into the details. Earnings from bananas dropped by 36% or $20.7 million to $37.2 million as this commodity continues to be negatively affected by limited labor and to some extent disease and high production costs."
"Citrus exports saw a similar decline down 35% or $11.4 million to $21.1 million due to decreased sales of orange concentrate and orange oil. Revenues from marine exports went down by 27% falling by almost $9 million to $24.2 million, owing mostly to reduced exports of lobster products and the lower world market prices for conch."
