That dollar amount results from a 0.5% increase compared to $6.4 billion five years prior during 2021.
Year over year, the value of El Salvador’s exports flatlined via a -0.3% slowdown from $6.45 billion starting from 2024.
Please note that El Salvador adopted the US dollar as its official currency in 2001. Later in 2021, El Salvador became the world’s first country to also recognize the digital currency Bitcoin as legal tender.
El Salvador’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 93.8% of products exported from El Salvador was bought by importers in: United States of America (32.8% of El Salvador’s total), Guatemala (19.6%), Honduras (16.7%), Nicaragua (9.1%), Costa Rica (4.5%), Mexico (3.9%), Panama (1.9%), Dominican Republic (1.7%), Spain (1.1%), Belgium (0.85%), mainland China (0.78%) and Italy (0.71%).
From a continental perspective, 55.9% of Salvadorean exports by value was delivered to Latin America excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean while 37.6% was sold to importers located in North America.
El Salvador shipped another 4.2% worth of goods to buyers in Europe.
Tinier percentages went to customers in Asia (2.1%), Oceania (0.12%) Australia and New Zealand only, then Africa (0.05%).
Given El Salvador’s population of 6.42 million people, its total US$6.43 billion in 2025 exports translates to roughly $1,000 for every resident in the Central American country. That dollar metric mirrors the average $1,000 per capita one year earlier during 2024.
El Salvador’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Salvadoran global shipments during 2025 at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from El Salvador.
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: US$1.4 billion (22.4% of total exports)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $546.3 million (8.5%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $441.7 million (6.9%)
- Paper, paper items: $376.2 million (5.9%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: $306.2 million (4.8%)
- Sugar, sugar confectionery: $279.9 million (4.4%)
- Cereal/milk preparations: $242.8 million (3.8%)
- Iron, steel: $212.3 million (3.3%)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $175.6 million (2.7%)
- Pharmaceuticals: $172.9 million (2.7%)
El Salvador’s top 10 export product categories generated almost two-thirds (65.3%) of the overall value of Salvadorean shipments.
Electrical machinery and equipment represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 20.2% since 2024.
In second place for improving export sales were the metals iron and steel which rose 18.1%.
El Salvador’s shipments of cereal or milk preparations posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 7.1% year over year.
The leading decliner among El Salvador’s top 10 export categories was sugar, both as material and sugar confectionery, which fell -14.2%.
Drilling down to the more detailed 4-digit HTS codes, El Salvador’s top 10 most valuable exports were knitted or crocheted t-shirts and vests (7.7% of the Salvadorean total), knitted or crocheted jerseys and pullovers (6.1%), plastic packing goods including lids and caps (4.9%), sugar (3.2%), tissues or napkins and toilet paper (also 3.2%), electrical capacitators (2.9%), coffee (2.6%), medication mixes in dosage (also 2.6%), then bread, biscuits, cakes and pastries (2.5%).
Products Driving El Salvador’s Best Trade Surpluses
The following types of Salvadoran 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.
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: US$1.1 billion (Down by -6.8% since 2024)
- Sugar, sugar confectionery: $223.7 million (Down by -18.7%)
- Coffee, tea, spices: $153 million (Up by 24.4%)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $51.8 million (Up by 169.1%)
- Milling products, malt, starches: $19.1 million (Up by 40.3%)
- Paper, paper items: $17.6 million (Down by -40.5%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $876,000 (Up by 14.2%)
- Lead: $773,000 (Down by -78.2%)
- Vegetable plaiting materials: $318,000 (Up by 66.5%)
- Gums, resins, other vegetable saps: $312,000 (Reversing a -$294,000 deficit)
El Salvador has highly positive net exports in the international trade of apparel well ahead of sugar and coffee, partially due to the country’s low-cost labor force. In turn, these cashflows indicate El Salvador’s strong competitive advantages under the clothing, sugar and coffee product categories.
Products Causing El Salvador’s Worst Trade Surpluses
El Salvador incurred an overall -US$11.4 billion deficit in 2025, expanding by 19.9% from -$9.53 billion in red ink one year earlier for 2024.
Below are exports from El Salvador that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country El Salvador’s goods trail Salvadoran importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$2.1 billion (Up by 2.2% since 2023)
- Machinery including computers: -$1.33 billion (Up by 24.8%)
- Vehicles: -$1.27 billion (Up by 19.7%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$790.9 million (Down by -2.7%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$504.7 million (Up by 7.5%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$480.6 million (Up by 24.8%)
- Cereals: -$441.5 million (Up by 35.4%)
- Iron, steel: -$428.4 million (Up by 43.5%)
- Meat: -$394.5 million (Up by 17.9%)
- Miscellaneous food preparations: -$363.6 million (Up by 6.8%)
El Salvador has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits historically for refined petroleum oils and petroleum gases under the mineral fuels including oil product category.
Salvadoran Export Companies
No Salvadoran corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exporters from El Salvador. Selected examples are shown below.
- Empresas ADOC (shoes)
- Gpremper (internet technology)
- TACA Airlines (airliner)
- Unicomer Group (international retailer)
In macroeconomic terms, El Salvador’s total exported goods represent 7.3% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2025 ($88.3 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 7.3% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2025 compares to 7.7% for 2024. Those percentages suggest a decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for El Salvador’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. El Salvador’s unemployment rate averaged 5.216% for 2025, equal to the average 5.216% in 2024 based on International Monetary Fund statistics.
El Salvador’s capital city is San Salvador.
See also Exported Food from El Salvador Plus Food Imports, Sugar Exports by Country, Honduras Top 10 Exports, Guatemala’s Top 10 Trading Partners and Nicaragua’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on April 17, 2026
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on April 17, 2026
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on April 17, 2026
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on April 17, 2026
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on April 17, 2026
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on April 17, 2026
Wikipedia, List of Companies of El Salvador. Accessed on April 17, 2026
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on April 17, 2026