Do We Deserve Food Aid

Exports Not So Bad THE PERFORMANCE of exports since devaluation can hardly be described as dismal. If allowance is made for the upsetting of contracts and delays in announcing and implementing follow-up measures, exports have done reasonably well in the quarter June-August as compared with last year. True, there has been a decline of 17 per cent in the value of exports as compared with the corresponding quarter of 1965, from $415 mn to $346 mn (the figures are expressed in dollars to make them comparable), but nearly two-third of this decline is accounted for by three countries, Britain, Russia and Egypt, which together absorb roughly one-third of our exports. The share of these three countries in our exports has declined rather suddenly from 37 per cent to 31 per cent. Commodity-wise, out of the decline of $69 mn in earnings, jute accounts for $21 mn, tea $13 mn, tobacco $11 mn, cotton fabrics $9 mn, sugar $5 mn, and engineering goods $1 mn, making a total of $60 mn. Iron ore has remained constant at $16 mn, while leather goods have moved up from $15 mn to $22 mn, and fish from $3 mn to $6 mn.