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China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
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Ethiopia, officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a sovereign state located in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia shipped an estimated US$2.6 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2018, down by -14% since 2014. Year over year, that dollar amount represents a -10.5% drop in Ethiopian export sales from 2017 to 2018.
In addition, Ethiopia furnished an estimated $4.9 billion worth of international services during 2018 encompassing about $3.3 billion from transport-related and $959.2 million for travel-related services.
Based on estimates from the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook, Ethiopia's exported goods plus services represent 8.1% of total Ethiopian economic output or Gross Domestic Product estimated for 2017. Please note that the overall value of exported goods and services includes a sizable share of re-exports. The analysis below focuses on exported products only.
The latest available country-specific data for 2017 shows that 68.5% of products exported from Ethiopia were bought by importers in: China (10.1% of the global total), Somalia (8.5%), United States (7.9%), Saudi Arabia (7.2%), Germany (6.8%), Netherlands (6.6%), United Arab Emirates (4.5%), Switzerland (3.9%), Japan (3.5%), Djibouti (3.4%), Belgium (3.3%) and Israel (2.8%).
On a per-continent basis, $1.2 billion or 42.7% of Ethiopian exports by value were delivered to Asian countries while 29.1% were sold to European nations. Ethiopia shipped another 18.7% worth of goods to fellow African nations, with 8.5% of Ethiopia's shipments going to customers in North America.
Given Ethiopia's population of 108.4 million people, its total $2.6 billion in 2018 exports translates to roughly $25 for every resident in the northeast African nation.
Ethiopia's unemployment rate was forecasted to be 19.3% at September 2019 per Trading Economics.
Ethiopia's Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Ethiopian global shipments during 2018. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Ethiopia.
Coffee, tea, spices: US$867.6 million (33.9% of total exports)
Oil seeds: $437.7 million (17.1%)
Live trees, plants, cut flowers: $265.6 million (10.4%)
Vegetables: $146.2 million (5.7%)
Machinery including computers: $110.6 million (4.3%)
Meat: $106.7 million (4.2%)
Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $102.6 million (4%)
Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $85.9 million (3.4%)
Gems, precious metals: $76 million (3%)
Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $70.2 million (2.7%)
Ethiopia's top 10 exports are highly concentrated, representing 88.6% of the overall value of Ethiopian global shipments.
Machinery including computers was the fastest-growing among the top 10 export categories, up by 29,091% since 2017.
In second place for improving export sales was unknitted and non-crocheted clothing or accessories thanks to a 158.7% improvement.
Ethiopia's shipments of knitted or crocheted clothing or accessories posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 150.6%.
The leading decliner among Ethiopia's top 10 export categories was vegetables via its -72.9% drop.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, coffee represents Ethiopia's most valuable exported product at 33.5% of the country's total. In second place were oil seeds (14.7%) trailed by fresh or dried flowers for bouquets or ornamental purposes (9%), dried shelled vegetables (5.2%), sheep or goat meat (3.7%), gold (2.5%), turbo-jets (2.1%), leather footwear (1.8%), soya beans (1.6%) then miscellaneous live plants (1.3%).
Top 10 Ethiopian Exports to China
Ethiopia's exports to China amounted to $288.2 million or 10.1% of its overall exports.
Oil seed: $209.6 million
Raw hides excluding furskins:$41.9 million
Ores, slag, ash: $8.6 million
Coffee, tea, spices: $8.2 million
Footwear: $7.5 million
Gums, resins: $3.5 million
Cotton: $2.7 million
Live trees, plants: $1.3 million
Plastics: $976,000
Food waste, animal fodder: $886,000
