Exports of herbal products from Malaysia have been facing many situations affecting its global trading. The supply and demand for herbal products globally are generally unpredictable. These situations usually result in sudden changes in quantities exported and revenues obtained. The costs per kg of the products sometimes influenced the amount of product traded. Differences in costs per kg of product exported to that of similar product imported give some indications of the trading situation during the period under consideration. Negative values imply that the products have been partly consumed locally and some were exported, while positive values indicated that there had been profit incentives for exporters. Long term commitments for the supply of the products by the traders to importers in other countries could also be the reason for the continuity of trade.
Quality of raw materials could be classified into various grades with best quality for the product fetching high prices and vice versa. These factors also influenced the import prices and export revenues.
Note: Where data is not recorded or not available, trade figures may have not been declared. The Royal Customs and Excise Division of the Ministry of Trade have to declare export and import data of products before the Statistics Department could process it. Once the processed data had surpassed 2 years, the data could become permanent.
