A South Asian island country in the Indian Ocean, the Republic of Maldives shipped US$93.2 million worth of exported products around the globe in 2024.

That dollar amount reflects a -42.7% plunge from $162.6 million 5 years earlier in 2020.

Year over year, the value of Maldivian exported goods shrank by -42.6% compared to $162.3 million starting from 2023.

Based on the average exchange rate for 2024, the Maldivian rufiyaa appreciated by 0.15% against the US dollar since 2020 but depreciated by -0.15% from 2023 to 2024. Maldives’ weaker local currency compared to 2023 makes its exports paid for in stronger US dollars slightly less expensive for international buyers.

Maldives’ Major Trading Partners

The latest available country-specific data shows that 90.7% of products exported from Maldives was bought by importers in: Thailand (34.8% of Maldives’ total), United Kingdom (21.7%), Germany (10.4%), India (4.5%), France (3.9%), Vietnam (also 3.9%), Bangladesh (3.3%), Switzerland (2.3%), Japan (2%), Sri Lanka (1.7%), Costa Rica (1.08%) and Hong Kong (1.07%).

From a continental perspective, 55.4% of Maldives’s exports by value was delivered to Asian countries while 41.2% was sold to importers in Europe. Maldives shipped another 1.4% worth of goods to buyers in Africa.

Smaller percentages went to customers located in Costa Rica (1.1%) only for Latin America plus the Caribbean, North America’s United States and Canada (0.9%) then Australia in Oceania (0.001%).

Given Maldives’s population of 397,000 people according to data from the International Monetary Fund, its total US$93.2 million in 2024 exports translates to roughly $230 for every resident on the South Asian island. That dollar metric is well below than the average $410 per capita one year earlier for 2023.

Maldives’ Top 10 Exports

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Maldivian global shipments during 2024 at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from the Maldives.

1. Fish: US$53.3 million (57.2% of total exports)
2. Meat/seafood preparations: $30.7 million (33%)
3. Food industry waste, animal fodder: $3.8 million (4.1%)
4. Iron, steel: $3.1 million (3.3%)
5. Ships, boats: $822,000 (0.9%)
6. Copper: $809,000 (0.9%)
7. Plastics, plastic articles: $166,000 (0.2%)
8. Electrical machinery, equipment: $129,000 (0.1%)
9. Mineral fuels including oil: $124,000 (0.1%)
10. Aluminum: $122,000 (0.1%)

Maldives’ top 10 export categories accounted for 99.9% of the overall value of its global shipments.

Food industry waste and animal fodder was the lone grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 11.4% from 2023 to 2024.

The leading decliner among Maldives’s top 10 export categories was fish, pulled down by a -53.5% year-over-year drop.

Drilling down to the more granular four-digit HTS codes, frozen whole fish represents Maldives’ most valuable exported product at 41.7% of overall Maldivian international sales. In second place were preserved or prepared fish including caviar (33%), fish fillets and pieces (8.4%), inedible meat flour (4.1%), iron or steel scrap (3.3%), whole fresh fish (3.1%), dried, salted or smoked fish (3%), copper waste scrap (0.9%), live fish (0.7%), then cruise or cargo ships and barges (0.6%).

Products Creating Maldives’ Best Trade Surpluses

The following types of Maldivian 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.

1. Fish: US$17.9 million (Down by -78.5% since 2023)
2. Meat/seafood preparations: $15.3 million (Down by -42.8%)
3. Food industry waste, animal fodder: $2.3 million (Up by 0.9%)
4. Woodpulp: $8,000 (Down by -50.0%)

The Maldives posted highly positive net exports in the international trade of fish and related products. In turn, these cashflows indicate strong Maldivian competitive advantages for fish–one of the 3 food-related categories under which the Maldives ran a product surplus.

Products Causing Maldives’ Worst Trade Deficits

The Maldives incurred a -US$3.55 billion trade deficit for 2024, expanding by 9.8% from -$3.23 billion in red ink one year earlier in 2023.

Below are exports from the Maldives that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on goods from home country Maldives trail Maldivian importer spending on foreign products.

1. Mineral fuels including oil: -US$758.3 million (Up by 0.5% since 2023)
2. Machinery including computers: -$352.3 million (Up by 7.6%)
3. Electrical machinery, equipment: -$316 million (Up by 17.6%)
4. Aircraft, spacecraft: -$140.4 million (Up by 39.7%)
5. Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: -$117.8 million (Down by -9.1%)
6. Furniture, bedding, lighting , signs, prefab buildings: -$106 million (Up by 29.2%)
7. Meat: -$104.5 million (Up by 27.4%)
8. Dairy, eggs, honey: -$104 million (Up by 12.6%)
9. Plastics, plastic articles: -$86.9 million (Up by 5%)
10. Wood: -$85.7 million (Up by 26.7%)

Historically, the Maldives has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the mineral fuels including oil product category, particularly for refined petroleum oils and petroleum gases.

Maldivian Export Companies

Not one Maldivian corporation ranks on the Forbes Global 2000 list.

Wikipedia lists companies from the Maldives that are involved in businesses that intersect with international trade. Selected examples are shown below.

• Bank of Maldives Plc (branch bank)
• Dhiraagu (telecommunications)
• Maldivian, Island Aviation Services division (airliner)
• Ooredoo Maldives (mobile phone operator)
• Raajjé Online (internet service provider)

 
In macroeconomic terms, Maldives’ total exported goods represent 0.7% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2024 ($12.9 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 0.7% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2024 compares to 1.3% for 2023. Those percentages suggest a decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Maldives’ total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.

Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Maldives’ unemployment rate averaged 4.6% for 2024, up from an average 4.2% in 2023 according to Trading Economics metrics.

Malé is the capital city for the Maldives.

See also Thailand’s Top 10 Exports, Sri Lanka’s Top 10 Exports, Germany’s Top Trading Partners, India’s Top Trading Partners

Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook South Asia: Maldives. Accessed on December 3, 2025

EXCHANGE-RATES.org, Exchange Rates selected indicators (Domestic Currency per U.S. dollar, period average). Accessed on December 3, 2025

Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on December 3, 2025

International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on December 3, 2025

International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on December 3, 2025

Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on December 3, 2025

Wikipedia, Flag of Maldives. Accessed on December 3, 2025

Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on December 3, 2025

Wikipedia, List of Companies of the Maldives. Accessed on December 3, 2025

Wikipedia, Maldives. Accessed on December 3, 2025

Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on December 3, 2025