RIYADH: The volume of Saudi exports in 2015 surged to 54 million tonnes at a value of SAR158 billion, compared with 2014 when they amounted to 53m tonnes valued at SAR194bn.
Eisa Al-Eisa, a spokesman for the Saudi Customs, told Al Eqtisadiah that imports touched 83m tonnes in 2015 at a value of SAR640bn, as against 85m tonnes, valued at SAR655bn in 2014.
On the geographical distribution of the Kingdom’s imports, the spokesman explained that most of the imports come from China, the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, India, France and Italy.
He pointed out that the bulk of the Kingdom’s exports include polypropylene and polyethylene, citrine, ammonia, methanol, urea and hydrocarbon mixtures.
Al-Eisa explained there is a ban on imports of specific products from certain countries and these include certain types of meat, including beef and poultry species, as well as other products such as cosmetics.
In 2015, the Kingdom’s imports of meat reached nearly 182m kg compared with 178m kg in 2014, an increase of roughly SAR3bn.
The Kingdom’s imports of cosmetics exceeded SAR2.3bn at a volume of approximately 44.6m kg, double the size expected for the year.
