Ras Al Khaimah’s foreign trade grew 11.8% in 2016

Ras Al Khaimah / WAM

Foreign trade of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah grew by 11.8 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, according to a report published by the Studies and Commercial Cooperation Department at the RAK Chamber, based on data from the Customs Department.
Dr Ahmed Rashed Al Shemaili, Assistant Director-General of Commercial Service and Business Development Sector at RAK Chamber, said that foreign trade in the emirate had grown to reach AED10 billion compared to AED9.04 billion in 2015. Exports saw the lion’s share reaching AED3.78 billion, or 37.4 percent of total foreign trade, followed by imports which reached AED3.53 billion, or 34.9 percent. The re-export market stood at AED2.79 billion, or 27.7 percent, of total foreign trade.
Al Shemaili added that the total weight of the Emirate’s foreign trade reached 68,644,584,751 kilogrammes (kg) last year, of which 63,634,723,748kg were exports, 4,594,499,244kg were imports, and 415,361,759kg were in the form of re-exports.
According to Raja’ Mohammad Bin Juma, Head of the Economic Studies Section at RAK Chamber, imports grew by 16.4 percent to AED3.53 billion in 2016 compared to AED3.03 billion in 2015. Exports increased by 6 percent in 2016 to AED3.78 billion, compared to AED3.56 billion in 2015. Re-exports grew by 14.3 percent to AED2.79 billion in 2016 compared to AED2.4 billion in 2015.
As for the geographic allocation of emirate’s non-oil foreign trade activity in 2016, Juma said that RAK Free Trade Zone led the way in exports with AED971 million, representing 27.5 percent of total imports to the emirate. This was followed by imports worth AED638 million from Japan at 18 percent of the total, AED400 million from South Africa at 11 percent, AED204 million from China at 5.8 percent, followed by AED184 million from the United States at 5.2 percent of total imports to the emirate.
Other sources of imports to Ras Al Khaimah included Finland at 4.12 percent of the total, Oman at 4.1 percent, Bahrain at 4 percent, India at 3.1 percent, and Iran at 2.1 percent.
As for exports from Ras al-Khaimah, Oman was the leading destination with a total value of about AED906.8 million or 24 percent of total exports, followed by Kuwait with a value of AED855 million or 22.6 percent, Qatar at AED 559 million or 14.8 percent, followed by India at 12.7 percent with a value of about AED480 million, and Bahrain at about AED281 million or 7.4 percent of total exports.
Other destinations for exports from Ras Al Khaimah included Yemen at 3.9 percent of total exports, Saudi Arabia at 2.97 percent, Kenya at 2.94 percent, followed by Jebel Ali Port at 2 percent, and Iraq at 1 percent. The rest of the emirate’s exports were distributed among several other countries.