A country located on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast, Algeria shipped US$47.3 billion worth of exported products around the world in 2024.

That projected dollar amount results from a 108.9% acceleration compared to $22.7 billion for 2020.

Year over year, the overall value of goods exported from Algeria shrank by -17.3% compared to $57.2 billion starting in 2023.

Based on the average exchange rate for 2024, Algeria’s legal currency is the Algerian dinar which depreciated by -5.8% against the US dollar since 2020 but appreciated by 1.3% from 2023 to 2024. The weaker Algerian local currency compared to 2020 made Algeria’s exports paid for in stronger US dollars relatively lesser expensive for international buyers starting from American currency.

Algeria’s Major Trading Partners

Based on the latest available data from 2017, 81.7% of products exported from Algeria were bought by importers in: Italy (16% of its global total), France (12.6%), Spain (11.7%), United States of America (9.9%), Brazil (6%), Netherlands (5.4%), Turkey (5.2%), United Kingdom (4.6%), Portugal (2.7%), Belgium (2.6%), South Korea (2.5%) and India (also 2.5%).

From a continental perspective, 58.2% of Algeria’s exports by value were delivered to European countries while 17.1% were sold to importers in Asia. Algeria shipped another 11.8% worth of goods to North America.

Smaller percentages went to Latin America (7.2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (5.3%) then Oceania (0.5%) mostly Australia.

Given Algeria’s population of 46.6 million people, its total $47.3 billion in 2024 exports translates to roughly $1,000 for every resident in the northern African country. That dollar metric lags the average $1,200 per capita one year earlier during 2023.

Algeria’s Top 10 Exports

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Algerian global shipments during 2024. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Algeria.

1. Mineral fuels including oil: US$43.3 billion (91.5% of total exports)
2. Fertilizers: $1 billion (2.2%)
3. Inorganic chemicals: $868 million (1.8%)
4. Iron, steel: $703.8 million (1.5%)
5. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $563.7 million (1.2%)
6. Fruits, nuts: $119.3 million (0.3%)
7. Copper: $93.5 million (0.2%)
8. Machinery including computers: $66.3 million (0.1%)
9. Plastics, plastic articles: $41.1 million (0.1%)
10. Organic chemicals: $38.1 million (0.1%)

Algeria’s top 10 export categories generated 98.9% of the overall value of its global shipments.

Copper was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 108.8% from 2023 to 2024.

The other category giving improved export sales was plastics, both as material and items made from plastic, via a 49.5% advance.

The leading decliner among Algeria’s top 10 export categories was iron and steel, thanks to a -38.7% year-over-year drop.

The above listed product categories are at the two-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level.

Drilling down to the more granular four-digit HTS codes, Algeria’s top 5 most valuable exported products in 2024 were petroleum gases (43.2% of the Algerian total), crude oil (29.6%), refined petroleum oils (18.6%), nitrogenous fertilizers (2.2%), and ammonia (1%).

Collectively, that quintet of major products represents 94.6% of the overall value of Algerian exports. Such a high percentage shows Algeria’s strongly concentrated portfolio of exports.

Products Creating Best Algeria’s Trade Surpluses

Algeria earned an estimated US$3.6 billion surplus for all products traded during 2024, reducing by -77% from $30.2 billion in black ink one year earlier in 2023.

The following types of Algerian product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.

In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services..

1. Mineral fuels including oil: US$42.7 billion (Down by -16.9% since 2023)
2. Fertilizers: $879.9 million (Down by -24.5%)
3. Inorganic chemicals: $712.2 million (Up by 5.1%)
4. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $454.7 million (Down by -35.8%)
5. Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $13.1 million (Up by 54.5%)
6. Cork, articles of cork: $11.7 million (Down by -8.9%)
7. Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $4.5 million (Down by -55.4%)
8. Collector items, art, antiques: $2.9 million (Up by 201.6%)
9. Wool: $1.7 million (Up by 194.3%)
10. Furskins, artificial fur: -$7,000 (Reversing a -$22,000 deficit)

Algeria has positive net exports in the international trade of petroleum gases and petroleum oils. In turn, these cashflows indicate Algeria’s strong competitive advantages under the mineral fuels including oil product category.

Products Causing Largest Algeria’s Trade Deficits

Below are exports from Algeria that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Algeria’s goods trail Algerian importer spending on foreign products.

1. Machinery including computers: -US$6.7 billion (Up by 20% since 2023)
2. Vehicles: -$4 billion (Up by 11.9%)
3. Cereals: -$3.1 billion (Down by -1.7%)
4. Electrical machinery, equipment: -$2.8 billion (Up by 13.1%)
5. Plastics, plastic articles: -$2.8 billion (Up by 9.4%)
6. Dairy, eggs, honey: -$1.54 billion (Up by 7.1%)
7. Pharmaceuticals: -$1.49 billion (Down by -2.4%)
8. Articles of iron or steel: -$1.3 billion (Up by 10.6%)
9. Sugar, sugar confectionery: -$1.1 billion (Up by 40.1%)
10. Oil seeds: -$931 million (Down by -7.7%)

Algeria maintains highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers product category.

Algerian Export Companies

Not one Algerian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.

Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Algeria. Selected examples are shown below.

• Asmidal (chemicals)
• Cevital (food, glass, home appliances)
• Hamoud Boualem (soft drinks)
• Naftal (oil equipment, services)
• Saidal (pharmaceuticals)
• Sonatrach (oil, gas)

 
In macroeconomic terms, Algeria’s total exported goods represent 5.7% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2024 ($823.9 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 5.7% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2024 compares to 7.9% for 2023. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Algeria’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.

Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Algeria’s unemployment rate averaged 11.43% at December 31, 2024, down from 11.7% one year earlier according to YCharts metrics.

Algeria’s capital city is Algiers.

See also South Africa’s Top 10 Exports, Kenya’s Top 10 Exports, Ghana’s Top 10 Exports, Mozambique’s Top 10 Exports and Egypt’s Top 10 Exports

Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Africa: Algeria. Accessed on August 20, 2025

EXCHANGE-RATES.org Algerian Dinar (DZD) To US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rate History. Accessed on August 20, 2025

FlagPictures.org, Flag of Algeria. Accessed on August 20, 2025

Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on August 20, 2025

International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on August 20, 2025

International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 20, 2025

Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on August 20, 2025

Wikipedia, Algeria. Accessed on August 20, 2025

Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on August 20, 2025

Wikipedia, List of Companies of Algeria. Accessed on August 20, 2025

Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on August 20, 2025