Hong Kong market explodes for Tongan exporters

Tongan exporters have faced a mixed result in recent years, with some markets disappearing and others growing spectacularly.

Kaniva News reports New Zealand remains Tonga’s main market and there has been explosive growth in Hong Kong, but Singapore and Fiji barely register on the trade index.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning in its 2016-17 Budget Statement, exports to New Zealand fell from 31.4% of the kingdom’s exports in 2007-8 to just 25.1% in 2014-15.

However, in the same period, the value of exports to New Zealand rose from T$5,278,000 to TS7,049,000.

Exports to Australia rose from 4.9 percent of exports to 11.4 percent between the 2007/8 financial year and the 2014-15 financial year. The value of exports to Australia rose from T$817,000 to T$3,200,000 in the same period.

But the explosive growth has come in Hong Kong, which was worth just T$171,000 in 2007-8 and made up just one percent of Tonga’s exports. In the 2014-15 financial year, however, exports to Hong Kong were worth T$5,368,000 and counted for 19.1 percent of the export trade.

Singapore, on the other hand, has vanished as a market. Worth just T$104,000 in 2007-8 and comprising 0.6% of the market, was worth only T$4000 in 2014-15, too low to register as a percentage in the Ministry figures.

Trade with Fiji was down to 0.7% of the export market in 2014-15 from a high of 2.7% in 2011-12. In 2014-15 trade was worth T$186,000.

Elsewhere, trade with the US mainland in 2014-15 was worth 19.6% of Tonga’s export market after falling to a low of 10.5% in 2011-12. US mainland trade was worth T$5,514,000 in the 2014-15 financial year, almost triple what is was in 2007-8 and TS$2 million more than it was in the 2013-14 financial year.

Exports to Japan were worth more in the 2014-15 financial year – T$3.361,000 compared to $2,244,000 in 2007-8 and T$2,710,000 in 2013-14. However, they had dropped to 11.9% of the value of overall exports from 12.5% in 2013-14.

Tonga’s four main markets in terms of percentage are New Zealand (25.1%), mainland United States (19.6%), Hong Kong (19.1%), Japan (11.9%) and Australia (11.4%).

Tonga’s chief exports are in live animals and animal products and vegetables. Live animals and animal products were worth 46.2% of export trade in 2014-15. This was a strong recovery from the 2012-13 financial year when they comprised just over 35% percent of exports, but still a long way from the high of 2009-10, when they comprised 64.3% of exports.

   
Source:
Kaniva News