Jewelry and several other commodities have retained their charm on the global market and saw an increase in exports in the first month of the year despite a fall in Indonesia's trade.

Jewelry led in terms of value of exports of manufactured goods, registering a 194 percent export increase, to $216 million in January. Footwear followed with a 105 percent increase to $97.5 million and special purposes machinery rose 31 percent to $95 million.

"Some commodities have the potential to increase in exports. Even crab exports increased dramatically by 101.7 percent to $3.2 million," said Central Statistics Agency (BPS) head Suryamin in Jakarta on Monday.

Specialty coffee exports rose 17.9 percent and were valued at $92 million. Metal goods exports rose 56.6 percent to $18.3 million and prefabricated construction goods rose 42.5 percent to $14.5 million.

Meanwhile, white pepper exports rose 2.7 percent to $11.7 million, shrimp exports rose 12.5 percent to $5 million and pork exports increased 12.5 percent to $5 million. "It [pork] possibly came from North Sulawesi and North Sumatra," he said.

North Sulawesi and North Sumatra are among the provinces that have developed pig farms to meet local demand from the non-Muslim population.

During the same period, the exportation of fishery products rose 4.6 percent to $4.5 million, while fish exports increased 12.6 percent to $2.4 million and miscellaneous pepper exports rose 84 percent to $1.1 million.

"Some manufactured goods could support exports even though the amount has yet to be significant amid declining international prices. Some commodities that previously dominated exports are still under pressure," Suryamin explained.

In total, January exports fell 11.9 percent on a monthly basis to $10.5 billion. Oil and gas exports dropped 14.8 percent to $1.1 billion due to the downward trend in global oil prices, while non-oil and gas exports dropped 11.5 percent to $9.4 billion. (ags)

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