The figures are drawn from goods made by about 1,000 companies

There was a 1% drop in the second quarter of the year and a 2.7% decrease over the year to the end of June.

Scotland's main exporting sector is the electrical and instrument engineering industry but it continues to contract.

Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen said the figures were "disappointing" but that they should be considered "carefully" and "in context".

He said the decline in the electrical and instrument engineering sector had had a "considerable effect" on the overall performance of total manufactured exports.

"Outside the electronics sector, there has been an increase in export sales over both the quarter and the year," Mr Stephen said.

"This achievement by Scottish exporters highlights that Scottish companies are in a position to compete in the global economic environment."

It is another sorry decline in manufactured export sales Murdo Fraser MSP Tory Enterprise spokesman

Stephen Boyd, of the STUC, said: "Scottish companies and economic development agencies must actively rebalance trade with rapidly growing economies such as China and India.

"We must maximise the opportunities provided by globalisation rather than morbidly focusing on the threats."

Scottish Conservatives' enterprise spokesman Murdo Fraser said: "It is another sorry decline in manufactured export sales.

"Scottish manufacturing needs a shot in the arm and the best thing the executive can do is to reduce its cost base."

He continued: "That is why we need the promised cut in business rates now, not in the future.

"Every day that business rates are not reduced, Scotland is losing out."

Breakdown of figures

The figures are based on a sample of about 1,000 Scottish manufacturing companies per of all sizes per quarter.

Between April and June this year, they show:

• Electrical and instrument engineering: -3.6%
• Chemicals: -8.5%
• Food and tobacco: -12.7%

The main industries showing growth in export sales in real terms were drink (+2.3%), metals (+6.5%) and mechanical engineering (+4.4%).

Since exports peaked in the final quarter of 2000, the level of manufactured exports has fallen by 38.6% in real terms, an average quarterly decline of 2.5%.