Creating niche markets for Sri Lanka’s exports
Providing a niche market is an ideal avenue to promote and expand Sri Lankan exports with the country’s most successful apparel buyers being in a niche market and at the top of the value chain, according to Suresh de Mel, Chairman/CEO, Export Development Board of Sri Lanka (EDB).
He was making a presentation at a webinar on “Strategic Interventions on COVID-hit Exports in Sri Lanka. How to overcome barriers?”, organised by the Central Bank this week where he also stressed on various alternate export avenues, pointing out that exports are absolutely necessary to revive the country’s economy.
Based on high quality for personal customer relations, the customer loyalty niche market would be more sustainable and resilient in crisis times like the pandemic, he said.
He said that the world is now increasingly going for organic, certified and origin traceable food where traceability has become a big buzzword for clean food security especially in the western world as many countries are requiring food security.
Sri Lanka is heading towards 100 per cent chemical free food indicating that the country can be organically certified within a short time which in turn would become world famous as a producer of chemical free food in the world, he said, adding: “This is also a big opportunity for organic producers in the country.”
He said that the demand for anti-oxidant food products are growing and Sri Lanka is well known to have super food products like ‘Murunga’, ‘Jackfruit’ and ‘Anoda’ which could have a great potential for exports.
He spoke about the global exports and what has happened to Sri Lanka and some interventions made to facilitate exports, the measures taken by the Central Bank, the Treasury and about the 5 year National Exports Strategy 2018 to 2022 and the export market trends involved in the new normal that would overcome barriers and the significance of the topic.
He said that due to COVID-19 world exports were a disaster and while Sri Lanka too was seriously affected, the most important request of the export community here in Sri Lanka was to expedite vaccination which can minimise the spread of the pandemic, which has been proven in countries like the US.
Exporters have requested that they be updated regularly on the many changes that are happening and lot of issues can be sorted out like freight rates, lack of containers etc.
He said that the Sri Lankan missions overseas are very active in promoting exports and tourism and in the promotion of non-traditional exports. The priorities, he said is to diversify the export basket as well as diversify markets and said that they are actively working with the missions in China, Germany, Japan, India and Abu Dhabi.
He stressed the importance of virtual meetings, video conferencing and webinars on new normal opportunities because more people can participate in these virtual webinars and virtual meetings, especially during the pandemic period.
Prof. W.D. Lakshman, Governor, Central Bank, in his opening remarks said that they are pursuing a policy framework in which exports are going to play a significant role.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created major setbacks to the global economy and global consumption and supply chains, he said.