DENPASAR ~ According to data released by the Bali Industry and Trade Office, the export value of silver exports in 2007 totaled US$1,533,091.35, a 170.55-percent increase from 2006, a spokesman said.

The head of the Bali Silver Association, Nyoman Patra, said a number of factors boosted the increase in silver exports, including the celebrations of New Year and Christmas.

“We had to put in extra effort to handle the amount of orders during Christmas and New Year’s,” he said, adding that during Christmas last year, there was a 15-percent increase in orders.

He said that consumers now preferred silver to gold because gold had become too expensive.

Asked how he would maintain the high export level, Patra said that the association had scheduled a number of overseas promotional events, the first an exhibition in Arizona.