Ras Al Khaimah – MENA Herald: According to a report published by the Studies & Commercial Cooperation Department at the Ras Al Khaimah Chamber, based on data from the Ras Al Khaimah Customs Department, foreign trade in the Emirate grew by 11.8% in 2016 compared to 2015.
Dr. Ahmed Rashed Al Shemaili, Assistant Director-General of Commercial Service and Business Development Sector at Ras Al Khaimah Chamber said that foreign trade in the Emirate grew by 11.8% in 2016 to reach a value of AED 10 billion compared to AED 9.04 billion in 2015. Exports had the lion’s share and reached AED 3.78 billion, or 37.4% of total foreign trade, followed by imports which reached AED 3.53 billion or 34.9% while the re-export market reached AED 2.79 billion or 27.7% of total foreign trade.
Al Shemaili added that the total weight of the Emirate’s foreign trade reached 68,644,584,751 kilograms last year, of which 63,634,723,748 kilograms were exports, 4,594,499,244 kilograms were imports, and 415,361,759 kilograms were in the form of re-exports.
According to Raja’ Mohammad Bin Juma, Head of the Economic Studies Section at Ras Al Khaimah Chamber, imports to the Emirate grew by 16.4% to AED 3.53 billion in 2016 compared to AED 3.03 billion in 2015. Exports, increased by 6% in 2016 to AED 3.78 billion compared to AED 3.56 billion in 2015. Re-exports grew by 14.3% to AED 2.79 billion in 2016 compared to AED 2.4 billion in 2015.
As for the geographic allocation of Ras Al Khaimah’s non-oil foreign trade activity in 2016, Ms. Juma said that RAK Free Trade Zone lead the way in exports to the Emirate with AED 971 million, representing 27.5% of total imports to the Emirate. This was followed by imports worth AED 638 million from Japan at 18% of the total, AED 400 million from South Africa at 11%, AED 204 million from China at 5.8%, followed by AED 184 million from the United States at 5.2% of total imports to the Emirate.
Other sources of imports to Ras Al Khaimah included Finland at 4.12% of the total, Oman at 4.1%, Bahrain at 4%, India at 3.1%, and Iran at 2.1%.
As for exports from Ras Al Khaimah, Oman was the leading destination with a total value of about AED 906.8 million or 24% of total exports, followed by Kuwait with a value of AED 855 million or 22.6%, Qatar at AED 559 million or 14.8%, followed by India at 12.7% with a value of about AED 480 million, and Bahrain at about AED 281 million or 7.4% of total exports.
Other destinations for exports from Ras Al Khaimah included Yemen at 3.9% of total exports, Saudi Arabia at 2.97%, Kenya at 2.94%, followed by Jebel Ali Port at 2%, and Iraq at 1%. The rest of the Emirate’s exports were distributed among a number of other countries.
Oman also took first place in terms of re-exports through Ras Al Khaimah with a total value of AED 1.243 billion representing the lion’s share at 44.5%. It was followed by Bulgaria with a total value of AED 920.8 million or 33% of total re-exports through the Emirate, Azerbaijan with a value of AED 224 million at 8%, RAK Free Trade Zone with a total of AED 102.8 million at 3.7%, followed by Qatar with a total value of about AED 87 million at 3.1% of total re-exports through Ras Al Khaimah.
Other destinations of re-exports through the Emirate included Georgia with a share of 2.67%, Iraq with 1.1%, followed by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and shipping warehouses
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