01Key Takeaways
- Djibouti exported $4.78 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 3.83% from $4.61 billion in 2022.
- Ethiopia alone bought 83.50% of Djibouti's exports, worth $4.00 billion, the most concentrated single-partner relationship in this dataset.
- Djibouti's top three partners, Ethiopia, the UAE, and China, accounted for 90.56% of total export value in 2023.
- Animal and vegetable fats and oils were the top export category at 21.17% ($1.01 billion), followed by vehicles at 16.74% ($801.01 million).
023-Year Trend
| Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $3.8B | $4.6B | $4.8B |
03Top Export Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ethiopia | $4.0B | 83.5% |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates | $222.0M | 4.6% |
| 3 | China | $115.9M | 2.4% |
| 4 | France | $84.3M | 1.8% |
| 5 | United States | $76.0M | 1.6% |
| 6 | Yemen | $66.2M | 1.4% |
| 7 | Somalia | $54.0M | 1.1% |
| 8 | Oman | $37.9M | 0.8% |
| 9 | Turkey | $31.3M | 0.7% |
| 10 | Canada | $22.2M | 0.5% |
04Top Export Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Animal or Vegetable Fats and Oils and their Cleavage Products; Prepared Edible Fats; Animal or Vegetable Waxes | $1.0B | 21.2% |
| 2 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $801.0M | 16.7% |
| 3 | Iron and Steel | $614.0M | 12.8% |
| 4 | Sugars and Sugar Confectionery | $403.1M | 8.4% |
| 5 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $301.6M | 6.3% |
| 6 | Cereals | $268.2M | 5.6% |
| 7 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $212.0M | 4.4% |
| 8 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $131.2M | 2.7% |
| 9 | Inorganic Chemicals; Organic or Inorganic Compounds of Precious Metals, of Rare-Earth Metals, of Radioactive Elements or of Isotopes | $119.7M | 2.5% |
| 10 | Edible Vegetables and certain Roots and Tubers | $104.2M | 2.2% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
A Trade Relationship Built Almost Entirely Around One Neighbor
Djibouti exported $4.78 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 3.83% from $4.61 billion the year before. Ethiopia bought 83.50% of that total by itself, worth $4.00 billion. No other partner reached even 5%. Ethiopia and Djibouti's economies are described as highly interdependent through the Port of Djibouti, which has traditionally served as the only maritime outlet for landlocked Ethiopia. That single fact explains most of what shows up in this dataset.
United Arab Emirates ranked a distant second at 4.64% ($221.98 million). China followed at 2.42% ($115.90 million). Combined, Ethiopia, the UAE, and China made up 90.56% of total export value in 2023. That leaves barely a tenth of the total spread across every other destination on the list. France took 1.76% ($84.35 million), and the United States added 1.59% ($76.02 million). Yemen took 1.38% ($66.16 million), Somalia added 1.13% ($53.99 million), and Oman contributed 0.79% ($37.89 million). Turkey and Canada closed out the top ten at 0.65% ($31.30 million) and 0.46% ($22.21 million).
The scale of the Ethiopia relationship isn't unique to trade statistics. An estimated 90% of Djibouti's port throughput comes from Ethiopian imports, generating port fees that make up roughly half of Djibouti's GDP. Djibouti's own domestic economy is small and mostly service-based, so a large share of what customs data records as a Djiboutian "export" is goods that entered the port from elsewhere and moved onward across the border, not products Djibouti itself manufactured or grew.
Fats, Vehicles, and Steel Top a List That Reads Like a Transit Manifest
Animal and vegetable fats and oils led every export category, worth $1.01 billion, or 21.17% of total export value. Vehicles ranked second at 16.74% ($801.01 million), and iron and steel followed at 12.83% ($614.00 million). None of these are goods Djibouti produces domestically in any real volume. The country has little arable land, no oilseed processing industry, and no vehicle or steel manufacturing base of its own.
Sugar and sugar confectionery added 8.43% ($403.14 million), and plastics contributed 6.30% ($301.61 million). Cereals took 5.60% ($268.15 million), electrical machinery added 4.43% ($211.96 million), and machinery and boilers contributed 2.74% ($131.20 million). Inorganic chemicals and vegetables rounded out the top ten at 2.50% ($119.65 million) and 2.18% ($104.22 million). Every one of these categories fits the same pattern: raw materials and manufactured goods arriving by sea, then crossing into Ethiopia by road or rail rather than being consumed inside Djibouti itself.
Three Years of Data, Not Five
The fact sheet behind this page covers three years, not the usual five-year window: $3.83 billion in 2021, $4.61 billion in 2022, and $4.78 billion in 2023. Earlier annual figures aren't available in the underlying dataset for Djibouti's export side, so this is a shorter snapshot than most of the country pages on this site, not a sign that Djibouti's trade only started in 2021.
Within that shorter window, the trend is steady growth. Exports rose every year, climbing 3.83% from 2022 to 2023 after a larger jump the year before. Given how tightly Djibouti's export total is tied to a single trading partner, that steady climb likely tracks Ethiopia's own import demand and cargo volumes moving through the port more closely than any shift in what Djibouti itself produces or sells.