That dollar amount results from a 40.8% increase from $2.95 billion five years earlier in 2020.
Year over year, the value of Mauritanian exports rose 1.9% compared to $4.1 billion during 2023.
Mauritania’s 5 biggest export products by value were unwrought gold, iron ores or concentrates, moluscs, frozen whole fish, and copper ores or concentrates. Collectively, that quintet of leading international shipments represent 94.6% of total revenues that Mauritania collected from its exported goods during 2024.
Such a high percentage indicates a highly concentrated portfolio of export products.
Given Mauritania’s population of 4.53 million people, its total US$4.15 billion in 2024 exports translates to roughly $915 for every resident in the northwest African nation. That per-capita amount exceeds the per-capita average $870 for 2023.
Mauritania’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Mauritanian global shipments during 2024. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Mauritania.
- Gems, precious metals: US$1.6 billion (39.5% of total exports)
- Ores, slag, ash: $1.4 billion (33.2%)
- Fish: $949.3 million (22.9%)
- Food industry waste, animal fodder: $78.8 million (1.9%)
- Mineral fuels including oil: $21.6 million (0.5%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $14.7 million (0.4%)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $12.1 million (0.3%)
- Cotton: $10.1 million (0.2%)
- Fruits, nuts: $9.9 million (0.2%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $7 million (0.2%)
Mauritania’s top 10 exports accounted for 99.3% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Salt, sulphur, stone and cement was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 631.4% from 2023 to 2024.
In second place for improving export sales was fish via a 40.3% advance.
Mauritania’s shipments of cotton posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 26.8%.
The leading decliner among Mauritania’s top 10 export categories was animal or vegetable fats, oils and waxes thanks to a -64.7% year-over-year drop.
From the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, unwrought gold was Mauritania’s most valuable exported product at 39.5% of the country’s total. In second place were iron ores and concentrates (28.3%) trailed by moluscs (11.1%), frozen whole fish (10.8%), copper ores or concentrates (5%), inedible meat flour (1.9%), lobsters and other crustaceans (0.7%), processed petroleum oils (0.5%), natural sands (0.3%) then melons, watermelons or papayas (0.2%).
Mauritania’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 88.6% of products exported from Mauritania were bought by importers in: Canada (27.0% of the Mauritanian total), mainland China (25.2%), Switzerland (8.9%), Spain (8%), United Arab Emirates (3.5%), Algeria (3.2%), Italy (2.9%), Japan (2.4%), Ivory Coast (2.3%), Germany (1.8%), Nigeria (1.6%) and Australia (1.5%).
From a continental perspective, 32.7% of Mauritania’s exports by value was delivered to Asian countries while 27% was sold to importers in North America (mostly Canada). Mauritania shipped another 24.5% worth of goods to buyers in Europe.
Smaller percentages went to customers based in fellow African nations (14.2%), Oceania’s Australia and New Zealand only (1.5%), then Latin America (0.05%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.
Products Creating Greatest Trade Surpluses for Mauritania
The following types of Mauritanian 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.
- Gems, precious metals: US$1.6 billion (Up by 7.7% since 2023)
- Ores, slag, ash: $1.4 billion (Down by -10.5%)
- Fish: $947.7 million (Up by 40.6%)
- Food industry waste, animal fodder: $48.5 million (Down by -39.6%)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $9.9 million (Down by -5.1%)
- Lead: $761,000 (Down by -4.6%)
- Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $169,000 (Down by -30.5%)
- Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $24,000 (Up by 14.3%)
- Other base metals: -$6,000 (Reversing a -$27,000 deficit)
- Furskins, artificial fur: -$8,000 (Reversing a -$15,000 deficit)
Mauritania has highly positive net exports in the international trade of iron and copper ores or concentrates. In turn, these cashflows indicate Mauritania’s strong competitive advantages under the ores, slag and ash product category.
Products Causing Biggest Trade Deficits for Mauritania
Mauritania incurred an overall -US$668.3 million product trade deficit for 2024. That deficit represents a -10.3% reduction from -$745.3 million in red ink for 2023.
Below are exports from Mauritania that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Mauritania’s goods trail Mauritanian importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$1.7 billion (Down by -3.7% since 2023)
- Machinery including computers: -$502.3 million (Up by 20.5%)
- Sugar, sugar confectionery: -$332.3 million (Up by 9.6%)
- Vehicles : -$305.3 million (Up by 32.2%)
- Cereals: -$278.3 million (Up by 12.6%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$217.2 million (Up by 165.8%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$178.8 million (Down by -43.8%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$177.7 million (Down by -8%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$109.4 million (Down by -16.9%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$89.2 million (Up by 10.1%)
Mauritania has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the mineral fuels including oil category historically for refined petroleum oils and petroleum gas.
Mauritania’s Export Companies
Not one Mauritanian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000 for 2024.
Global trade portal Alibaba.com lists exports-related companies from Mauritania. Selected examples are shown below.
- Al Durr Sea Food (frozen fish, octopus)
- AMV Fish (fresh/frozen fish)
- EMCC SARL (seafood)
- MauriVenture – SARL (octopus)
- RimPesca – SA (octopus, cuttlefish, grouper)
In macroeconomic terms, Mauritania’s total exported goods represent 11.1% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2024 ($37.4 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 11.1% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2024 compares to 12.3% for 2022. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Mauritania’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Mauritania’s unemployment rate averaged 10.37% for 2024, down from an average 10.45% in 2023 per Trading Economics statistics.
Mauritania’s capital city is Nouakchott.
See also South Africa’s Top 10 Exports, Nigeria’s Top 10 Exports, Togo’s Top 10 Exports and Top African Export Countries
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook report on Africa: Mauritania. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Foreign Trade, United States Census Bureau. Accessed on February 6, 2026
International Monetary Fund, Exchange Rates selected indicators (Domestic Currency per U.S. dollar, period average). Accessed on February 6, 2026
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on February 6, 2026
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Wikipedia, Flag of Mauritania. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Mauritania. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Wikipedia, Mauritania. Accessed on February 6, 2026
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on February 6, 2026