That estimated dollar amount reflects a flatlining 1.5% increase compared to Ivory Coast’s $12.7 billion in exported products five-years earlier during 2017.
Year over year, Ivory Coast’s exports grew by 3.4% from $12.5 billion in 2020.
Ivory Coast’s biggest top 5 most valuable exports are cocoa beans, natural rubber, unwrought gold, cocoa paste, crude oil, then cocoa butter, fat and oil. Collectively, those top 5 goods represent almost three-quarters (73.9%) of the total value for all Ivory Coast’s exports. Such a high percentage indicates a concentrated portfolio of exported products.
Ivory Coast’s Key Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 67.2% of products exported from Ivory Coast were bought by importers in: Netherlands (10% of the global total), United States of America (6.7%), Switzerland (6.5%), Vietnam (6.4%), Belgium (5.4%), Mali (5.32%), Malaysia (5.25%), France (5.1%), Germany (4.4%), South Africa (4.3%), Burkina Faso (4.1%) and China (4%).
From a continental perspective, 42.6% of Ivory Coast’s exports by value were delivered to European countries while 23.3% were sold to importers also located in Africa. Ivory Coast shipped another 23.2% worth of goods to Asia.
Smaller percentages went to North America (9.1%), Latin America (1.3%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.6%) mostly Australia.
Given Ivory Coast’s population of 27.7 million people, its total $12.9 billion in 2021 exports translates to about $465 for every resident in the West African country. That dollar metric exceeds the average $450 per capita one year earlier during 2020.
Ivory Coast’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Ivoirian global shipments during 2021. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Ivory Coast.
- Cocoa: US$6.6 billion (51.4% of total exports)
- Rubber, rubber articles: $1.8 billion (14.3%)
- Gems, precious metals: $1.3 billion (10.3%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: $916.3 million (7.1%)
- Fruits, nuts: $745.4 million (5.8%)
- Cotton: $268.1 million (2.1%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $189.7 million (1.5%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $174.7 million (1.4%)
- Wood: $116.5 million (0.9%)
- Miscellaneous food preparations: $96.1 million (0.7%)
Ivory Coast’s top 10 exports accounted for 95.4% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Rubber as a material plus articles made from rubber was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 77% from 2020 to 2021.
In second place for improving export sales was cocoa via a 27.9% advance.
Ivory Coast’s shipments of ores, slag and ash posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 15.4%.
The leading decliner among Ivory Coast’s top 10 export categories was fruits and nuts thanks to a -33.6% drop year over year.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, the Ivory Coast’s most valuable export products are cocoa beans (36.7%) trailed by natural rubber (14.2%), unwrought gold (10.2%), cocoa paste (8.8%), crude oil (4%), cocoa butter, fat and oil (3.7%), bananas including plantains (3.1%), refined petroleum oils (2.3%), uncarded cotton (2%), then cashews and coconuts (1.9%).
Products Generating Ivory Coast’s Best Trade Surpluses
The following types of Ivoirian 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.
- Cocoa: US$6.6 billion (Up by 27.8% since 2020)
- Rubber, rubber articles: $1.7 billion (Up by 83.7%)
- Gems, precious metals: $1.3 billion (Down by -10.4%)
- Fruits, nuts: $726.7 million (Down by -34.1%)
- Cotton: $185.3 million (Down by -34.3%)
- Wood: $89.9 million (Down by -1.7%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $29.7 million (Down by -81%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $18.8 million (Down by -90.2%)
- Collector items, art, antiques: $14.5 million (Up by 9227.1%)
- Vegetable plaiting materials: $4.1 million (Up by 6.1%)
Ivory Coast has highly positive net exports in the international trade of cocoa. In turn, these cashflows indicate Ivory Coast’s strong competitive advantages under the cocoa product category.
Products Causing Ivory Coast’s Largest Trade Deficits
Ivory Coast faced an estimated overall -$843.9 million trade deficit for 2021 reversing a $1.9 billion profit one year earlier in 2020.
Below are exports from Ivory Coast that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Ivory Coast’s goods trail Ivoirian importer spending on foreign products.
- Machinery including computers: -US$1.3 billion (Up by 32.2% since 2020)
- Vehicles: -$966.2 million (Up by 44.2%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: -$829.7 million (Up by 9.1%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$786 million (Up by 21.3%)
- Cereals: -$768.6 million (Up by 4.1%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$646.8 million (Up by 68.6%)
- Fish: -$532.8 million (Down by -6.5%)
- Iron, steel: -$511.3 million (Up by 78.1%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$408.8 million (Up by 3.3%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$408.4 million (Up by 124.2%)
Ivory Coast has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers category.
Ivory Coast’s Export Companies
Not one Ivoirian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Ivory Coast. Selected examples are shown below.
- Abidjan Transport Company (transportation infrastructure)
- Autonomous Port of Abidjan (commercial seaport)
- Ivoirienne de Transports Aériens (cargo airliner)
In macroeconomic terms, Ivory Coast’s total exported goods represent 8.1% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2021 ($159.9 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 8.1% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2021 compares to 7.6% for 2020. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Ivory Coast’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Statistics from the International Monetary Fund put Ivory Coast’s average unemployment rate at 3.5% for 2021, same as the average 3.5% in 2020.
Ivory Coast’s capital city is Yamoussoukro, which is also home to the world’s highest domed church.
See also South Africa’s Top 10 Exports, Ghana’s Top 10 Exports, Angola’s Top 10 Exports and Nigeria’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources:
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on July 29, 2022
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity)
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on July 29, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on July 29, 2022
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on July 29, 2022
Wikipedia, Ivory Coast. Accessed on July 29, 2022
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Ivory Coast. Accessed on July 29, 2022
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on July 29, 2022
