Sri Lanka’s Merchandise Exports Fall 5.3% as Apparel and Agriculture Lose Ground
Sri Lanka’s merchandise export earnings fell 5.3% year on year to $1,233.4 million in July 2026. Lower agricultural, coconut, industrial, textile and apparel receipts weakened the country’s external trade earnings.
Export earnings retreat in July
Sri Lanka’s merchandise export earnings declined to $1,233.4 million in July 2026, according to figures from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s external sector bulletin reported by Gagana. The total was 5.3% below the $1,302.2 million recorded in July 2025, reducing monthly export receipts by $68.8 million year on year.
The contraction was spread across agricultural and industrial exports rather than being confined to a single product. This matters for Sri Lanka’s external sector because these categories include several of the country’s main sources of foreign-currency earnings, from tea and coconut products to textiles and apparel.
Agricultural exports record a sharper decline
Agricultural export earnings reached $272.7 million in July 2026, compared with $310.1 million in the same month of 2025. The $37.4 million decline accounted for more than half of the reduction in total merchandise export earnings between the two periods.
Tea exports generated $116.7 million during July. The available figures did not provide a year-on-year percentage change for tea, but the product remained a substantial component of agricultural export revenue, representing more than two-fifths of the category’s reported monthly earnings.
Coconut export earnings fell to $52.7 million, down 10.9% from July 2025. The result indicates weaker receipts for a sector supplying a range of food and industrial products. For producers, processors and exporters, lower dollar earnings can reflect changes in shipment volumes, export prices or product mix, although the published figures do not separate those effects.
Apparel weighs on industrial performance
Industrial export earnings decreased by 2.7%, from $984.6 million in July 2025 to $958.2 million in July 2026. The year-on-year difference was $26.4 million, showing a milder contraction than in agriculture but from a much larger revenue base.
Textile and apparel exports, one of Sri Lanka’s principal export categories, generated $439.3 million in July 2026. Earnings were 8.7% lower than a year earlier. The category represented almost half of reported industrial export receipts for the month, making its performance a major influence on the industrial total and on overall merchandise earnings.
The July data therefore show pressure in both commodity-linked agriculture and manufacturing. Apparel produced substantially more revenue than tea and coconut combined, while the agricultural decline was larger in absolute terms than the industrial decline. Future monthly figures will be important for determining whether July marked a temporary setback or a broader loss of momentum across Sri Lanka’s key merchandise exports.
