According to Statistics Canada, the value of exports from British Columbia fell sharply in April by 9.1%.
While exports of agriculture and fish products rose 0.9% and machinery and equipment rose slightly by 1.7%, shipments of industrial and consumer products plummeted by 22.2%.
Also registering substantial declines were exports of energy (–6.5%) and forestry (–6.1%) products.
The value of goods bound for U.S. customers was down 4.9% for a third straight month. All major commodity groups, with the exception of machinery and equipment (up 1.2%), were weaker. Most significant of these was a 13.6% drop in the value of exported energy products.
Nationally, exports slipped 1.9% in April, primarily attributable to a decline in ship-ments of machinery and equipment (–7.8%) and industrial goods (–3.8%).
Jennifer Harrison
Twitter: jharrisonbiv
jharrison@biv