Zambia's non-traditional exports ( NTEs) in the first half of this year recorded an increase of 28.76 percent over the same period of last year, an official from Export Board of Zambia (EBZ) said on Monday.

Glyne Michelo, executive director of EBZ, was quoted by Zambia News Agency as saying the engineering products sub-sector contributed the highest earnings with 73.7 million US dollars followed by primary agriculture at 51.1 million dollars and processed foods which earned 49.2 million dollars.

A previous report from Zambia's Central Statistics Office showed that total export value in the first half of this year stood at 3.8 trillion kwacha (about 836 million dollars).

Half-year exports in all the above three sub-sectors have already outstripped last year's total respectively, data from the EBZ showed. Primary agriculture grossed 49.4 million dollars in 2004, followed by engineering products which earned 41.2 million and processed foods at 32.4 million.

Zambia's NTEs products mainly include copper rods, sugar, electrical cables, tobacco, fresh flowers, cotton products, fresh vegetables, gemstones and gasoline.

Copper products remain the biggest foreign exchange earner which account for over half of the country's total exports.

The NTEs markets for last year and this year have continued to be led by South Africa followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Source: Xinhua