Exported goods from Eritrea were worth a total US$816.3 million in 2025.

That calculated dollar amount results from a 21.7% expansion from $670.6 million recorded 5 years earlier for 2021.

Year over year, overall Eritrean exports accelerated by 12.6% compared to $541.6 million starting from 2024.

Eritrea is a tiny country located in East Africa, bordered by Sudan to its west, Ethiopia to its south and southwest and Djibouti to its southeast. Northeastern and eastern Eritrea shares a coastline with the Red Sea.

Eritrea’s top two most valuable export products are copper ores or concentrates and zinc ores or concentrates. Combined, those product categories represent 96.1% of overall exports from Eritrea by value. Such a high percentage indicates an intensely concentrated portfolio of products for Eritrea’s international shipments.

Given Eritrea’s population of 3.9 million people, its total US$816.3 million in 2025 exports translates to roughly $200 for every resident in the East African country. That dollar metric outpaces the average $190 per capita one year earlier during 2024.

Eritrea’s Top 10 Exports

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Eritrean 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 Eritrea.

1. Ores, slag, ash: US$784.5 million (96.1% of total exports)
2. Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $14.8 million (1.8%)
3. Machinery including computers: $6.5 million (0.8%)
4. Vehicles: $1.8 million (0.23%)
5. Gums, resins, other vegetable saps: $1.2 million (0.15%)
6. Live animals: $1.1 million (0.13%)
7. Electrical machinery, equipment: $1.1 million (0.13%)
8. Iron, steel: $712,000 (0.09%)
9. Copper: $708,000 (0.09%)
10. Gems, precious metals: $632,000 (0.08%)

By value, Eritrea’s top 10 export product categories accounted for 99.6% of the overall value of its global shipments.

Vehicles represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 5,332% from 2024 to 2025.

In second place for Eritrea’s improving export sales was copper via a 1,586% advance.

Eritrean exports of live animals posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 474.7% compared to 2024. That winning product category placed ahead of machinery including computers (up 219.8%).

The decliners among the top 10 Eritrean export categories were gems and precious metals (down -99.6% from 2024) then gums, resins and other vegetable saps (down -65.7%).

At the more detailed 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, the major exports from Eritrea are copper ores or concentrates (68.5% of Eritrea’s global total), zinc ores or concentrates (27.6%), unknitted and non-crocheted women’s clothing (1%), piston engine parts (0.6%), unknitted and non-crocheted men’s shirts (0.4%), unknitted and non-crocheted women’s singlets and pyjamas (0.2%), then cars (also 0.2%).

Products Driving Eritrea’s Best Trade Surpluses

Eritrea incurred an estimated US$411.7 million trade surplus in 2025, expanding by 67.5% from $245.8 million in black ink one year earlier in 2024.

The following types of Eritrean 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. Ores, slag, ash: US$784.5 million (Up by 44.9% since 2024)
2. Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $14 million (Up by 57%)
3. Gums, resins, other vegetable saps: $1.2 million (Down by -63.4%)
4. Live animals: $1.1 million (Reversing an -$839,000 deficit)
5. Gems, precious metals: $536,000 (Down by -99.7%)
6. Copper: $261,000 (Reversing a -$224,000 deficit)
7. Perfumes, cosmetics: $135,000 (Reversing a -$1.4 million deficit)
8. Fruits, nuts: $71,000 (Reversing a -$1 million deficit)
9. Tobacco, manufactured substitutes: $61,000 (Reversing a -$5.7 million deficit)
10. Cocoa: $12,000 (Reversing a -$540,000 deficit)

Historically, Eritrea has highly positive net exports in the international trade of copper and zinc ores and concentrates. In turn, these cashflows indicate Eritrea’s strong competitive advantages under the ores, slag and ash product category.

Products Causing Eritrea’s Worst Trade Deficits

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

1. Machinery including computers: -US$87.7 million (Down by -2.4% from 2024)
2. Electrical machinery, equipment: -$66.8 million (Up by 70.4%)
3. Articles of iron or steel: -$38.3 million (Up by 59.6%)
4. Vehicles: -$29.1 million (Up by 52.1%)
5. Milling products, malt, starches: -$19.9 million (Down by -22.2%)
6. Sugar, sugar confectionery: -$16.9 million (Down by -6.5%)
7. Plastics, plastic articles: -$14.2 million (Up by 41.2%)
8. Rubber, rubber articles: -$12.1 million (Down by -22.9%)
9. Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$11.5 million (Up by 2%)
10. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$8.1 million (Up by 3.7%)

Eritrea has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the product category titled machinery including computers.

Eritrean Export Companies

Not one Eritrean corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.

Wikipedia does list exporters from Eritrea. Selected examples are shown below.

• Asmara Brewery (lager/stout beer)
• Golden Star Brewery (beer)
• Nakfa Corporation (corrugated boxes, sodium silicate)
• Red Sea Trading Corporation (international trade services)

 
One key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Eritrea’s unemployment rate averaged 6% for 2025, up from an average 5.9% in 2024 according to Trading Economics metrics.

Eritrea’s capital city is Asmara.

See also Eritrea’s Top 10 Imports, Top African Export Countries, Nigeria’s Top 10 Exports and Finding the Best International Trade Stocks

Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on October 24, 2026

Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on October 24, 2026

International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on October 24, 2026

International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on October 24, 2026

Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on October 24, 2026

Wikipedia, List of Companies of Eritrea. Accessed on October 24, 2026