That dollar amount results from a 56.1% acceleration from $4.1 billion five years earlier in 2017.
Year over year, the value of Tanzania’s globally exported products grew 6.8% compared to $6 billion during 2020.
The top 5 most valuable exports from Tanzania are unwrought gold, rice, dried shelled vegetables, precious metal waste and scrap, then coffee. Combined, those 5 major export products represent almost three-fifths (57.5%) of Tanzania’s total exports by value for 2021.
Tanzania’s Main Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 84.2% worth of products exported from Tanzania were bought by importers in: United Arab Emirates (16.5% of Tanzania’s global total), India (15.8%), South Africa (14.3%), Switzerland (8.2%), Kenya (6.2%), Uganda (4.9%), Rwanda (4.35%), mainland China (4.26%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.2%), Burundi (2.6%), Singapore (2.2%) and Vietnam (1.6%).
From a continental perspective, 45.7% of Tanzania’s exports by value were delivered to importers in Asia while 39.3% were sold to fellow African countries. Tanzania shipped another 14.2% worth of products to Europe.
Smaller percentages went to North America (0.7%), Oceania (0.07%) led by Australia and New Zealand, then Latin America (0.01%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.
Given Tanzania’s population of 59.7 million people, its total $6.4 billion worth of goods exported in 2021 translates to around $110 for each resident in the southeast African nation.
Tanzania’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Tanzanian global shipments during 2021. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Tanzania.
- Gems, precious metals: US$3 billion (46.5% of total exports)
- Cereals: $402.8 million (6.3%)
- Vegetables: $310.8 million (4.9%)
- Oil seeds: $269 million (4.2%)
- Coffee, tea, spices: $261.8 million (4.1%)
- Fruits, nuts: $179.4 million (2.8%)
- Fish: $164.3 million (2.6%)
- Tobacco, manufactured substitutes: $159.5 million (2.5%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $132.6 million (2.1%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $114.6 million (1.8%)
Tanzania’s top 10 exports accounted for 77.7% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Cereals represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 134.8% from 2020 to 2021. That product category was propelled by higher international sales of Tanzanian rice and corn.
In second place for improving export sales was vegetable via a 40.6% advance.
Tanzania’s shipments of oil seeds posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 37%.
The leading decliner among Tanzania’s top 10 export categories was ores, slag and ash, thanks to its -62.8% drop. That year-over-year decline was dragged down by lower revenues from exported Tanzanian precious-metal ores and concentrates.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, Tanzania’s most valuable export products are unwrought gold (42.9% of Tanzania’s total exports) trailed by rice (4.7%), dried shelled vegetables (4.2%), precious metal waste and scrap (3%), coffee (2.7%), cashews, coconuts and Brazil nuts (2.6%), unmanufactured tobacco and tobacco waste (2%), precious metal ores and concentrates (1.6%), and corn (1.4%).
Products Creating Tanzania’s Largest Trade Surpluses
The following types of Tanzanian 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$3 billion (Up by 0.2% since 2020)
- Vegetables: $304.9 million (Up by 41.1%)
- Coffee, tea, spices: $258.7 million (Up by 29.9%)
- Oil seeds: $245.6 million (Up by 38.2%)
- Fruits, nuts: $174 million (Down by -53.3%)
- Fish: $163.9 million (Up by 19.6%)
- Cereals: $159.5 million (Reversing a -$29.8 million deficit)
- Tobacco, manufactured substitutes: $148.8 million (Down by -2%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $130.5 million (Down by -63.3%)
- Wood: $73.3 million (Up by 128%)
Tanzania has highly positive net exports in the international trade of gold and, to a much lesser extent, diamonds and precious stones. In turn, these cashflows indicate Tanzania’s strong competitive advantages under the gems and precious metals product category.
Products Causing Tanzania’s Worst Trade Deficits
Tanzania incurred an overall -$4.5 billion trade deficit for 2021, expanding by 79.8% from -$2.5 billion in red ink one year earlier in 2020.
Below are exports from Tanzania that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Tanzania’s goods trail Tanzanian importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$2.2 billion (Up by 66.4% since 2020)
- Machinery including computers: -$1.2 billion (Up by 26.2%)
- Vehicles: -$913.1 million (Up by 26.9%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$653.5 million (Down by -0.3%)
- Iron, steel: -$646.7 million (Up by 75.5%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$606.2 million (Up by 37.5%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$455.7 million (Up by 6.2%)
- Other chemical goods: -$288.7 million (Up by 22.8%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$262.1 million (Down by -22.9%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$227.7 million (Up by 33.8%)
Tanzania has highly negative net exports particularly for refined petroleum oils, petroleum gases, and petroleum coke plus other petroleum oil residues.
Tanzanian Export Companies
Not one Tanzanian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists some exports-related companies from Tanzania. Selected examples are shown below.
- Dangote Industries Tanzania (cement)
- Nyati Cement (cement)
- Quality Group Limited (conglomerate)
- Swala Gas and Oil (oil, gas)
- Tanga Cement (cement)
- Tanzania Breweries Limited (beverages)
- Tanzania Cigarette Company (cigarettes)
- Tanzanian/Italian Petroleum Refining Co. Ltd (oil, gas)
- Twiga Cement (cement)
In macroeconomic terms, Tanzania’s total exported goods represent 3.4% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2021 ($185.4 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 3.4% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2021 compares to 3.1% for 2020. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Tanzania’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Tanzania’s average unemployment rate is forecast to be 9.7% at the end of 2022, up from an average 9.5% for 2020 according to Trading Economics.
Tanzania’s capital city is Dar es Salaam which literally means “residence of peace”.
See also Uganda’s Top 10 Exports, Somalia’s Top 10 Exports, Top Red Meat Exporters Ranked by Dollar Value and Top African Export Countries
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Africa: Tanzania. Accessed on August 12, 2022
FlagPictures.org, Flag of Tanzania. Accessed on August 12, 2022
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on August 12, 2022
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity)
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on August 12, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on August 12, 2022
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on August 12, 2022
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Tanzania. Accessed on August 12, 2022
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on August 12, 2022
Wikipedia, Tanzania. Accessed on August 12, 2022
