Samoa’s total exports for February 2022 rebounded significantly by $5.7 million due to a shipment of coconut oil worth $5.5 million exported to the United States of America. 

The shipment was highlighted in the Central Bank of Samoa's "Foreign Trade and International Commodity prices for February 2022" report.

Contributing to this expansion were increases of $4.8 million and $0.9 million in both domestically produced exports mainly coconut oil and beer and re-exports in that order.

Furthermore, North America became the main destination for Samoa’s exports in February 2022 with a total share of 54.5 per cent from 2 per cent in the previous month. 

“This jump was due to a large shipment ($5.5 million) of coconut oil exported to the United States,” read the report. 

“This was followed by the Pacific, Asia and Other regions with shares of 43.3 per cent, 1.9 per cent and 0.3 per cent in that order.” 

For the international monthly commodity prices, mostly recorded were increasing trends in February 2022.

“On the export side, prices for coconut oil, bananas and cocoa all rose by 6.5 per cent, 5.5 per cent and 3.2 per cent in that order. 

“On the import side, beef prices went up by 4 per cent while chicken prices fell by 1.7 per cent with rice and sugar prices remaining unchanged.” 

However, the total export receipts was 74 per cent or $4.4 million higher when compared to the same month last year, which was well above its average gains of 5.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent in the past three and five years respectively.

In the first eight months of 2021/2022, total export earnings declined by 17.5 per cent to $50.8 million over the same period last year, mostly due to large reductions in earnings from fresh fish (down by $16.0 million), taro (down by $3.3 million), coconuts (down by $0.6 million) and beer (down by $0.5 million).

On the other hand, the total import payments also leapt by 94.8 per cent or $44.6 million to $91.7 million reflecting expansions in non-petroleum private sector imports (up by $25.4 million) and government imports (up by $4.8 million) as well as the resumption of petroleum imports valued at $14.4 million.

“The hike in non-petroleum private sector imports reflected increases in construction materials, frozen food and trucks to name a few. 

“Moreover, total imports were 61.8 per cent (or $35.0 million) higher when compared to the same month of 2021, well above its average decreases of 1.9 per cent and 2.4 per cent in the past three and five years respectively.” 

For the first eight months of 2021/22, total import payments were 11.1 per cent (to $591.0 million) higher than the same period of last year.

Asia became the main source market for imports with a total share of 52.9 per cent. 

The Pacific region followed with a share of 37.2 per cent while North America, Europe and Others recorded shares of 9.6 per cent, 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively. 

The report also revealed that as a result of the sharp hike in imports, the ‘goods’ trade deficit expanded by 91.4 per cent to $81.5 million from the previous month and was also 60.4 per cent higher than its level in the same month last year. 

“The total trade deficit in the first eight months of 2021/22 was 14.8 per cent higher than the same period in 2020/2021.  

“According to the World Bank, the average spot price of crude oil expanded further by 12 per cent to USD$95.76 per barrel as the war between Ukraine and Russia continues.

“Similarly, it was 54.5 per cent higher when compared to February 2021, an expansion that was higher than its average drop of 5.7 per cent in the past three years and average gain of 17.3 per cent in the past five years.”