That dollar amount results from a -12% drop from $16.9 billion in exports sold five years earlier in 2020.
Year over year, the value of Myanmar’s exported goods grew by 1.2% from $14.75 billion starting from 2023.
Based on the average exchange rate for 2024, the Myanmar kyat depreciated by -34.8% against the US dollar since 2020 and weakened by -0.7% from 2023 to 2024. Its weaker local currency in 2024 made Myanmar’s exports paid for in stronger US dollars relatively lesser expensive for international buyers starting from American currency.
Note that Burma is another name often used to refer to Myanmar.
The top 5 most valuable exports from Myanmar are petroleum gases, dried shelled vegetables, rice, corn, then unknitted and non-crocheted women’s clothing other than coats or jackets. Added together, Myanmar’s 5 major exports accounted for 50.5% of the country’s overall shipments by value.
Main Customers for Myanmar’s Exported Products
The latest available country-specific data shows that 80.6% of products exported from Myanmar was bought by importers in: mainland China (23.2% of Myanmar’s total), Thailand (19.5%), India (8.5%), Japan (7.2%), Germany (4.2%), Indonesia (3.4%), United States of America (3.2%), South Korea (3%), Poland (2.9%), Italy (2%), Philippines (1.8%) and Belgium (1.7%).
From a continental perspective, 75.6% of Myanmar’s exports by value was delivered to fellow Asian countries while 18.7% was sold to importers in Europe. Myanmar shipped another 3.7% worth of goods to customers in North America.
Smaller percentages went to buyers in Africa (1.3%), Oceania (0.4%) led by Australia, then Latin America (0.3%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.
Myanmar’s population in 2024 was 54.9 million people. Considering Myanmar’s $14.9 billion in total exports, there is an average $272 in exported goods per resident. That dollar metric surpasses the average $270 per capita one year earlier during 2023.
Myanmar’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value global shipments from Myanmar during 2024. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Myanmar.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$3.3 billion (22.0% of total exports)
- Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $2.6 billion (17.2%)
- Cereals: $2.04 billion (13.6%)
- Vegetables: $1.98 billion (13.2%)
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $1.3 billion (8.6%)
- Fish: $641.6 million (4.3%)
- Rubber, rubber articles: $425.7 million (2.9%)
- Footwear: $410 million (2.7%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $310.6 million (2.1%)
- Fruits, nuts: $308.6 million (2.1%)
Myanmar’s top 10 exports accounted for 88.7% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Rubber, both as materials and items made from rubber, was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories up by 80.9% from 2023 to 2024.
In second place for improving export sales was cereals via a 70% advance, led by corn.
Myanmar’s shipments of electrical machinery and equipment posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 32.8%.
The leading decliner among Myanmar’s top 10 export categories was knitted or crocheted clothing and accessories, pulled down by a -13.1% year-over-year drop.
From the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, petroleum gases represent Myanmar’s most valuable exported product accounting for 21.5% of the country’s total. In second place were dried shelled vegetables (12%) trailed by rice (9%), corn (4.6%), unknitted and non-crocheted women’s clothing excluding coats and jackets (3.3%), unknitted and non-crocheted women’s coats and jackets (3%), unknitted and non-crocheted men’s coats and jackets (2.7%), unknitted and non-crocheted men’s suits and trousers (2.5%), knitted or crocheted jerseys and pullovers (also 2.5%), then unknitted and non-crocheted tracksuits and swimwear (1.6%).
Products Generating Myanmar’s Largest Trade Surpluses
Myanmar racked up an overall US$2.5 billion trade surplus for 2024, reversing $1.7 billion in red ink for 2023.
The following types of Burmese 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.
- Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): US$2.6 billion (Down by -11.4% since 2023)
- Vegetables: $2 billion (Up by 25.2%)
- Cereals: $1.9 billion (Up by 89.1%)
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $1.3 billion (Down by -12.6%)
- Fish: $633.1 million (Down by -1.9%)
- Footwear: $372.1 million (Up by 12%)
- Rubber, rubber articles: $370.5 million (Up by 137.1%)
- Fruits, nuts: $303.1 million (Up by 27.3%)
- Copper: $203.6 million (Up by 2030.4%)
- Oil seeds: $161 million (Down by -14.7%)
Myanmar has highly positive net exports in the international trade of clothing and accessories. In turn, these cashflows indicate Myanmar’s strong competitive advantages particularly under clothing and accessories product categories–and notably unknitted or non-crocheted goods.
Products Causing Myanmar’s Worst Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Myanmar that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Myanmar’s goods trail Burmese importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$1.2 billion (Down by -31.7% since 2023)
- Manmade staple fibers: -$716.8 million (Up by 32.9%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$572.3 million (Down by -11.9%)
- Manmade filaments: -$535.7 million (Down by -15.2%)
- Fertilizers: -$535.3 million (Down by -8.8%)
- Iron, steel: -$381.1 million (Down by -32.2%)
- Machinery including computers: -$376.8 million (Down by -56.3%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$340.3 million (Down by -16.6%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$336.4 million (Down by -37.4%)
- Vehicles: -$333 million (Up by 4.7%)
Myanmar has notably negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits, historically for refined petroleum oils under the mineral fuels including oil product category.
Myanma Export Companies
Not one Myanma corporations rank among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Myanmar. Selected examples are shown below:
- Aeon Display and Security System (display and security systems)
- Asia World (conglomerate including imports/exports)
- Htoo Group of Companies (holding firm including wood exports)
- Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (oil, gas)
- Myanmar Distribution Group (consumer goods)
- Myint & Associates (industrial transportation)
- Red Link Communications (telecommunications)
- Shan Star (automobiles)
In macroeconomic terms, Myanmar’s total exported goods represent 4.8% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2024 ($312.5 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 4.8% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2024 lags the 5.4% for 2023. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Myanmar’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Myanmar’s unemployment rate averaged 3.03% for 2024, same as the average 3.03% jobless rate according to Statista metrics.
Myanmar’s capital city is Nay Pyi Taw.
See also Myanmar’s Top 10 Imports, Thailand’s Top Trading Partners, Japan’s Top Trading Partners, India’s Top Trading Partners, Malaysia’s Top Trading Partners and Poland’s Top Trading Partners
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook East Asia/Southeast Asia: Burma. Accessed on September 8, 2025
Forbes 2024 Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on September 8, 2025
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on September 8, 2025
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on September 8, 2025
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on September 8, 2025
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on September 8, 2025
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Myanmar. Accessed on September 8, 2025
Wikipedia, Myanmar. Accessed on September 8, 2025
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on September 8, 2025