Foreign trade in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE reached Dh10 billion ($2.72 billion) in 2016 compared to Dh9.04 billion in 2015, marking an increase of 11.8 per cent, according to a report published by Ras Al Khaimah Chamber.
Dr Ahmed Rashed Al Shemaili, assistant director-general of Commercial Service and Business Development Sector at Ras Al Khaimah Chamber said that exports had the lion’s share and reached Dh3.78 billion ($1.02 billion), or 37.4 per cent of total foreign trade, followed by imports which reached Dh3.53 billion or 34.9 per cent while the re-export market reached Dh2.79 billion or 27.7 per cent of total foreign trade.
Al Shemaili added that the total weight of the Emirate’s foreign trade reached 68.6 billion last year, of which 63.6 billion kg were exports, 4.5 billion kg were imports, and 415.3 million kg 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 per cent to Dh3.53 billion in 2016 compared to Dh3.03 billion in 2015.
Exports, increased by 6 per cent in 2016 to Dh3.78 billion compared to Dh3.56 billion in 2015. Re-exports grew by 14.3 per cent to Dh2.79 billion in 2016 compared to Dh2.4 billion in 2015.
As for the geographic allocation of Ras Al Khaimah’s non-oil foreign trade activity in 2016, Bin Juma said that RAK Free Trade Zone lead the way in exports to the Emirate with Dh971 million, representing 27.5 per cent of total imports to the Emirate.
This was followed by imports worth Dh638 million from Japan at 18 per cent of the total, Dh400 million from South Africa at 11 per cent, Dh204 million from China at 5.8 per cent, followed by Dh184 million from the US at 5.2 per cent of total imports to the Emirate.
Other sources of imports to Ras Al Khaimah included Finland at 4.12 per cent of the total, Oman at 4.1 per cent, Bahrain at 4 per cent, India at 3.1 per cent, and Iran at 2.1 per cent.
As for exports from Ras Al Khaimah, Oman was the leading destination with a total value of about Dh906.8 million or 24 per cent of total exports, followed by Kuwait with a value of Dh855 million or 22.6 per cent, Qatar at Dh559 million or 14.8 per cent, followed by India at 12.7 per cent with a value of about Dh480 million, and Bahrain at about Dh281 million or 7.4 per cent of total exports.
Other destinations for exports from Ras Al Khaimah included Yemen at 3.9 per cent of total exports, Saudi Arabia at 2.97 per cent, Kenya at 2.94 per cent, followed by Jebel Ali Port at 2 per cent, and Iraq at 1 per cent. 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 Dh1.243 billion representing the lion’s share at 44.5 per cent. It was followed by Bulgaria with a total value of Dh920.8 million or 33 per cent of total re-exports through the Emirate, Azerbaijan with a value of Dh224 million at 8 per cent, RAK Free Trade Zone with a total of Dh102.8 million at 3.7 per cent, followed by Qatar with a total value of about Dh87 million at 3.1 per cent of total re-exports through Ras Al Khaimah.
Other destinations of re-exports through the Emirate included Georgia with a share of 2.67 per cent, Iraq with 1.1 per cent, followed by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and shipping warehouses.
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