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| Sunday, 15 January 2006 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Lanka's
printing and paper exports to go higher
by Elmo Leonard Sri Lanka's exports of printing and paper at end-September 2005 stood at $22 million and is expected to go beyond the island's highest export figure of $29.4 million for the year, when export are computed, later. The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) was in the process of evaluating why printing and paper exports in 2004 dropped to $27 million, bearing a steady rise in printing shipments from $20.5 million in 2001, EDB director-product management, Ms Indra Malwatte said. EDB had targeted the printing industry and is carrying out a comprehensive plan to capture 1 percent of the annual global $200 billion export market. One of EDB's objectives is to create globally competitive Sri Lankan products, acceptable in international markets, Malwatte said. Printing is part of packaging, which is a value adder in exports. EDB would like to plan out a strategy for printing exports from Sri Lanka and in the process, establishing a trade mark for the nation. Malwatte, took the example of the conceptualised Dilmah trade mark, 15 years ago. Fortunately, for Dilmah, the then EDB chairman agreed with that essential marketing concept, funded the Dilmah company, and the Dilmah trade mark is today one of the world's best known, in tea drinking. While the forex earned from all agricultural products could enhance many times over through market aligned packaging and printing, packaging and printing could do the same for all industrial products, Malwatte said. The industrial product sectors include diamonds, gems and jewellery, apparel, fisheries, products, handlooms, rubber, ceramics, leather, footwear, engineering, mineral based, electrical, toys, printing and stationery items. Taking just one category of industrial products, being toys, Malwatte said that there are many inquiries for toys to be exported in gift packages, ready for the shop shelf, which necessitated printing and packaging. In the export market for printing, there are many inquiries for the printing of exercise books, for instance. But, the quality of local exercise books is low. An effective strategy would be to set an internationally accepted standard for the production of exercise books, pool together small companies which put out such products, and then export to niche markets. Once, Sri Lanka establishes a name for the export of exercise books, individual companies could attempt to go it alone, Malwatte said. There are many other types of products which Sri Lankan printers could export, Malwatte said. Sri Lanka's main export markets for printing are Germany, Australia, France, Finland, Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, USA and Middle Eastern countries. Sri Lanka's main competitors could be, China, Hongkong, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and The Philippines. Malwatte said that too many Sri Lanka exporters feared China, that their prices are low, forcing a non-contender situation on them. But, China could execute only large orders. Sri Lankan print exporters must exploit niche markets for small orders. The secret for success of exports from Sri Lanka : focus on what consumers "want to buy" not what you "want to sell." Learn how to develop new products; choose the right customer; train workers to produce high quality products at minimum cost; be innovative and take risks; know where to ask for help and use IT to manage all stages of the exporting process, Malwatte said. A company which started production for the local market with a staff of eight employees, today has over 300 employees, he said. The products manufactured by this company are files, albums, labels and
packaging materials. The company participated in the renowned Paper-world
Exhibition and received orders from France and Germany for stationery items
for children's workbooks. |
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