Year over year, Ethiopia’s most recent exports total represents a 17% acceleration from $4.5 billion starting from 2024.
Based on average exchange rates, the Ethiopian birr strengthened by 68.2% against the US dollar since 2021 and appreciated by 47.4% from 2024 to 2025. Ethiopia’s stronger local currency made Ethiopian exports paid for in weaker US dollars relatively more expensive for international buyers starting from American currency.
Ethiopia’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data from 2023 shows that 67.4% of products exported from Ethiopia was bought by importers in: Saudi Arabia (10.4% of the Ethiopian total), United States of America (9.7%), Netherlands (7.6%), United Arab Emirates (5.7%), Somalia (5%), India (4.9%), Germany (4.7%), mainland China (4.6%), South Korea (4.1%), Japan (3.6%), Israel (also 3.6%) and Djibouti (3.4%).
From a continental perspective, 51.1% of Ethiopia’s exports by value was delivered to Asian countries while 23.2% was sold to importers in Europe. Ethiopia shipped another 14% worth of goods to Africa.
Smaller percentages went to buyers in North America (10.5%), Oceania mostly Australia and New Zealand (1%) and Latin America (0.2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.
Given Ethiopia’s population of 110 million people, its total US$5.24 billion in 2025 exports translates to roughly $50 for every resident in the northeast African nation. That dollar amount exceeds the average per capita of about $30 one year earlier during 2024.
Ethiopia’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Ethiopian global shipments during 2025. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Ethiopia.
- Coffee, tea, spices: US$2.9 billion (54.6% of total exports)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $457.3 million (8.7%)
- Live trees, plants, cut flowers: $341.1 million (6.5%)
- Oil seeds: $318.6 million (6.1%)
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $195.8 million (3.7%)
- Machinery including computers: $157.7 million (3%)
- Vegetables: $150.3 million (2.9%)
- Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $137 million (2.6%)
- Food industry waste, animal fodder: $62 million (1.2%)
- Meat: $56.5 million (1.1%)
Ethiopia’s top 10 exports accounted for 90.4% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Electrical machinery and equipment represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 2,581% from 2024 to 2025.
In second place for improving export sales was machinery including computers via a 132.1% advance.
Ethiopia’s shipments of coffee, tea and spices posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 79.7%.
The leading decliner among Ethiopia’s top 10 export categories was meat, pulled down by a -33.5% year-over-year drop.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, coffee represents Ethiopia’s most valuable exported product generating over two-fifths (54.5%) of the country’s total.
In second place were solar power diodes or semi-conductors (8.6%), fresh or dried flowers for bouquets or ornamental purposes (5.8%), oil seeds (5.5%), turbo-jets (2.7%), dried shelled vegetables (2.6%), solid residues such as soya-bean oil cake (1.2%), knitted or crocheted infant clothing (1%), unknitted and non-crocheted men’s suits or trousers (0.9%) then flax yarn (0.8%).
Products Attracting Ethiopia’s Largest Trade Surpluses
The following types of Ethiopian 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.
- Coffee, tea, spices: US$2.9 billion (Up by 80.2% since 2024)
- Live trees, plants, cut flowers: $339.4 million (Up by 3.7%)
- Oil seeds: $304.8 million (Down by -17.7%)
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $180.3 million (Up by 16.1%)
- Vegetables: $140 million (Down by -24%)
- Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $118.2 million (Down by -2.4%)
- Food industry waste, animal fodder: $55.6 million (Up by 115.9%)
- Meat: $50.9 million (Down by -33.7%)
- Paper yarn, woven fabric: $43.9 million (Up by 68.1%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $24.2 million (Up by 51.8%)
Ethiopia has highly positive net exports in the international trade of coffee. In turn, these cashflows indicate Ethiopia’s strong competitive advantages under the coffee, tea and spices product category.
Products Causing Ethiopia’s Worst Trade Deficits
Ethiopia incurred an overall -US$3.9 billion trade deficit during 2025, shrinking by -14.7% from the -$4.55 billion in red ink one year earlier in 2024.
Below are exports from Ethiopia that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Ethiopia’s goods trail its importer spending on foreign products.
- Machinery including computers: -US$1.9 billion (Down by -0.3% since 2024)
- Aircraft, spacecraft: -$1.7 billion (Up by 39.6%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$610 million (Down by -48.3%)
- Fertilizers: -$556.1 million (Up by 553.7%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$393.1 million (Down by -7.2%)
- Vehicles: -$339.5 million (Down by -7.8%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: -$287.1 million (Up by 1%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$268.5 million (Down by -18.9%)
- Other chemical goods: -$247.2 million (Up by 10.9%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$218.7 million (Down by -8%)
Ethiopia has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers product category.
Ethiopian Export Companies
Given that Ethiopia is an emerging economy, it should come as no surprise that not one Ethiopian corporation appears on the Forbes Global 2000 list.
Wikipedia does document some Ethiopian export companies. Selected examples are shown below.
- Ambo Mineral Water (bottled mineral water)
- Ethio Telecom (mobile, fixed line, broadband services)
- Marathon Motors Engineering (automobiles)
- Yebbo Communication Network (software, websites)
- Yousran International (sesame seeds, spice seeds, edible oils)
According to global trade intelligence firm Zepol, the following companies are examples of Ethiopian exporters representing diverse industries.
- A Oil Seeds and Cereals Export (beans including kidney beans)
- Haicof Limited (coffee)
- Harar Brewery Share (malt beer)
- Max Export (polypropylene)
- Packtra (polyesters, lamps)
In macroeconomic terms, Ethiopia’s total exported goods represent 1.1% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2025 ($484.4 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 1.1% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2025 compares to 0.8% for 2025. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Ethiopia’s total economic performance, albeit based on relatively short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Ethiopia’s unemployment rate was an estimated 3.5% for 2025, up from an average 3.4% one year earlier in 2025 per a Trading Economics forecast.
Ethiopia’s capital city is Addis Ababa.
See also Ethiopia’s Top Trading Partners, Ethiopia’s Top 10 Imports, China’s Top Trading Partners, India’s Top Trading Partners and Top African Export Countries
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on June 17, 2026
Forbes, Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on June 17, 2026
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Databases (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on June 17, 2026
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 17, 2026
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 17, 2026
The World Bank, Official Exchange Rate (LCU per US$, period average) – Ethiopia. Accessed on June 17, 2026
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Ethiopia. Accessed on June 17, 2026
Zepol’s company summary highlights by country. Accessed on June 17, 2026