Stats are well above national average

Sunday, November 12, 2006

By Jaquetta White

The value of exports leaving Louisiana shot up 39 percent in the third quarter of 2006, compared with last year when hurricanes slowed the business of ports and exporters in the state, according to federal trade statistics released this week by the World Trade Center of New Orleans Inc. The value of Louisiana 's top export group, agricultural products, jumped 50 percent in the year-on-year comparison.

About $5.6 billion in goods were shipped from Louisiana in the three month period ended Sept. 30, compared with $4 billion in the same period of 2005. The data is based on information gathered by the World Institute of Strategic Economic Research for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The climb continues the improvements in the first two quarters of the year, following the sharp decline of exports at the end of 2005.

The report does not measure the volume of products leaving the state, only their value, which can fluctuate. That doesn't make the increase any less important, said Eugene Schreiber, managing director of the World Trade Center of New Orleans.

"It's good news all around," Schreiber said of the increase. "It benefits the companies that are producing exports and the ports handling cargo from other states."

The report tracks exports that originate, meaning they are made or grown, in a state. However, products that have harder-to-track origins can be claimed by states other than those where they originate. Sixty percent of the grain that leaves the United States , for instance, is counted as a Louisiana export, though very little of it is grown here.

Agricultural products, which include grain, were the state's top export in the quarter. More than $1.8 billion in goods were exported from Louisiana in the period, up 50 percent from last year. Other top exports grew as well. Chemical exports were up 25 percent and petroleum and coal climbed 73 percent..

Louisiana 's growth more than doubled the national average of 16 percent.

Some of that difference, however, is due to the fact that Louisiana is still in hurricane recovery mode and making up ground that it lost last year, Schreiber said.

"We're playing catch up," Schreiber said. "But it's nothing to sneeze at."

The strong performance puts the state in the position to have a record year, said Larry Collins, director of International Services for the state's office of economic development.

Exports increased to all of the state's top five trading partners. Shipments to the Netherlands , the state's fifth-largest partner, climbed a whopping 150 percent. Those to Japan , the largest export partner, rose 45 percent.

Schreiber expects those numbers to continue to climb as the world's economic climate improves.

"As long as the world economy is expanding there is no reason to think that our ports and export businesses won't grow and expand," Schreiber said. "The global economy is healthy. If it wasn't we'd be suffering."

. . . . . . .