Bali Earns US$13.72 Million from Furniture Exports

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian tourist resort province of Bali has earned US$13.72 from its furniture exports in the January - May 2014 period, data at the local industry and trade office showed.

The figure is 6.77 percent down from the previous furniture exports in the same period of 2013 which stood at US&14.72 million, according to data made available at the Industry and Trade Service here on Friday.

Data at the industry and trade service showed that the volume of the exports dropped 86.56 percent from 9.07 million units in the first five months of 2013 to 1.21 million units in the same period this year.

Furniture is one of Bali's 17 cottage handicraft products which is able to penetrate the global market and is able to contribute 6.38 percent of Bali's total exports which reached about US$215.04 million.

In the meantime, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) recoded that Bali's export earning declined 1.53 percent to US$266.13 million in the first half of the year  from US$270.26  million in the same period last year.

"Manufactured goods and products of cottage industry accounted for 75 percent of the export income," head of the provincial office of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Panusunan Siregar said here on Tuesday.

Around 50 percent of the exports were made via ports in other Indonesian provinces  with the rest via the Benoa port of Denpasar.

The provincial administration needs to expand the Benoa port to become an international ports to be able to handle all shipments of all exports from  Bali, Siregar said.

"Expansion of the Benoa port  would help reduce congestion over land transport  and increase the regional income," he said.

In June alone exports from Bali were valued at US$47.05 million, up 7.49 percent  from the same period last year  or an increase of 15.90 percent from May this year.

The main export commodities of Bali are fish and shrimps, jewelry, garments, wood products  and furniture.

The export destinations include the United States, Singapore, Australia , Japan, and  Thailand. (WDY)