Malé, Maldives — Statistics published by the Maldives Customs Service reveals that an increase of 13 percent in import revenue is seen in March 2021 compared to the same period of last year.
Customs Office informs that there has been an increase of MVR 3.6 billion (13%) in the value of goods, including the import of fuel, that were imported during March 2021 compared to the same period last year. Excluding fuel, this is a 4% increase in the imports of March.
Customs reports that out of the total MVR 3.6 billion spent on imports, MVR 808 million was spent on food items. However, this food category does not include of pork, alcohol and tobacco that was imported into Maldives. Customs informed that MVR 39 million worth of tobacco, alcohol and pork were imported Maldives during March and MVR 23 million worth cigarettes containing tobacco were imported.
MVR 639 million was spent on importing machinery and mechanical appliances such as electrical equipment, making them the second highest imported goods into the Maldives in March 2021.
Oman tops major importing countries to the Maldives, importing MVR 465 million worth of goods, making up for 13% of imports while Maldives imported MVR 439 million (13%) from India. Singapore (12%, 432M), UAE (12%, 413M) and China (11%, 380M) follow closely behind.
While the statistics showed a decrease of MVR 301 million (21%) in the value of goods that was exported during March 2021 compared to the same period of last year, the most exported good from Maldives was frozen Skipjack or Stripe-bellied Bonito at MVR 88 million.
The second most exported commodity was prepared and preserved Skipjack at MVR 30 million, followed by frozen Yellowfin Tuna (11M), canned/preserved (11M), and Fresh or chilled Yellowfin Tuna chunks (9M) respectively.
According to Customs, Thailand tops the top five exporting countries of Maldives taking over 38% of the exports providing an income of up to MVR 77 million in March. Following behind Thailand is Japan, with Maldives exporting 11% of Maldivian goods to the country at an overall total of MVR 23 million in March. The remaining three countries in the top five exported countries are India, (8%, 15M), United States (7%, 15M) and Germany (7%, 13M) respectively.
Fuel such as diesel, petrol and aviation gas were the third highest good that was imported to Maldives during January, having imported MVR 587 million worth fuel to Maldives.
