KINGSTON, Jamaica —Jamaica’s earning from total exports for the first five months of the 2012 was valued at US$715.3 million with domestic exports increasing by 1.08 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

President of the Jamaica Exporters Association (JEA), Vitus Evans, presented the figure at Tuesday’s (October 9) quarterly media briefing in Kingston.

He noted that of the US$715 million, total domestic exports accounted for US$692.7 million, and re-exports US$22.6 million.

The US$692.7 earned from total domestic exports was 1.08 per cent more than the US$684.76 million for the similar period in 2011.

Evans said that during the period, non-traditional domestic exports grew by seven per cent to US$319 million. Of this, food exports increased by almost seven per cent, valuing US$60.3 million. This was boosted by strong performances from non-traditional food exports, such as papaya, which made over US$2.36 million, a 193 per cent increase over the previous year.

Earnings from juices, excluding citrus, were US$3.58 million, US$1 million more than last year, while animal feed earnings grew by 40 per cent to US$3.6 million and fruits and fruit preparations increased by 74 per cent to US$3.3 million.

The JEA President theorised that new players investing in areas, such as agro-processing, have accounted for the boost in export earnings.

He pointed out that with the exception of manufacturing, all other traditional domestic exports reflected decreased earnings with the biggest drop seen in the mining and quarrying category.