RIYADH, 23 August — US exports to Saudi Arabia in the first half of 2002 plunged to a 12-year low, a report said yesterday.

The value of exports reached $2.2 billion on June 30, a drop of 30.5 percent from the same period in 2001, the Foreign Trade Division of the US Census Bureau said in figures released on the Internet.

The figure is the lowest for US exports to Saudi Arabia since 1990 — when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, which led to the 1991 Gulf War. Then, first-half exports reached only $1.7 billion. It is also less than half of an all-time high of $5 billion in a half year recorded in 1998.

Saudi exports to the US also dropped 24.2 percent to $5.6 billion in the first half from $7.4 billion a year earlier. The value of the Kingdom’s exports to the United States reached $13.3 billion last year, of which $12.6 billion, or 95 percent, were oil and gas related products.

The drop in US exports to Saudi Arabia is attributed mainly to a 39 percent decline in exports of machinery and equipment from $2.1 billion in the first half of 2001 to $1.28 billion.

Exports of beverages and tobacco plunged by 55 percent to just $59.6 million from $132.5 million.

A grass-roots campaign to boycott US products in Saudi Arabia was launched in April following a Washington-backed Israeli military offensive against Palestinians. The campaign was conducted from mosques, schools and universities, and through newspapers, the Internet and mobile phone text messages urging consumers to shun products originating from the United States.

Saudi Arabia has been the United States’ main trading partner in the Middle East, with US civilian and military exports valued at $6.2 billion and imports at $14.2 billion in 2000, according to official figures.