01Key Takeaways
- Fiji imported $3.10 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 3.44% from $3.00 billion in 2022, roughly three times the country's export total that year.
- Singapore supplied 25.65% of imports, worth $795.20 million, Fiji's top single supplier, tied closely to fuel trade.
- Mineral fuels were the top import category at 24.29% ($753.06 million), the same category that also leads Fiji's export list.
- Fiji's top three suppliers, Singapore, Australia, and China, made up 56.12% of total import value in 2023.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $2.8B | $1.7B | $2.1B | $3.0B | $3.1B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | $795.2M | 25.6% |
| 2 | Australia | $478.7M | 15.4% |
| 3 | China | $466.1M | 15.0% |
| 4 | New Zealand | $423.0M | 13.6% |
| 5 | United States | $159.2M | 5.1% |
| 6 | Japan | $108.7M | 3.5% |
| 7 | India | $95.4M | 3.1% |
| 8 | Thailand | $84.1M | 2.7% |
| 9 | Malaysia | $75.7M | 2.4% |
| 10 | Indonesia | $51.7M | 1.7% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $753.1M | 24.3% |
| 2 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $292.5M | 9.4% |
| 3 | 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 | $214.0M | 6.9% |
| 4 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $199.3M | 6.4% |
| 5 | Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories thereof | $119.7M | 3.9% |
| 6 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $105.6M | 3.4% |
| 7 | Cereals | $99.2M | 3.2% |
| 8 | Articles of Iron or Steel | $69.3M | 2.2% |
| 9 | Dairy Produce; Birds' Eggs; Natural Honey; Edible Products of Animal Origin, not elsewhere specified or included | $65.7M | 2.1% |
| 10 | Meat and Edible Meat Offal | $56.4M | 1.8% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Singapore's Fuel-Trading Machine Supplies a Quarter of Everything
Fiji imported $3.10 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 3.44% from $3.00 billion the year before, a total running roughly three times the country's export figure covered elsewhere on this site. Singapore supplied 25.65% of that total, worth $795.20 million, by far Fiji's largest single supplier. Singapore is the world's largest bunkering hub by a wide margin, recording annual bunker sales more than five times that of Rotterdam, and functions as the preferred redistribution hub for refined fuel products moving throughout Asia-Pacific. That role explains why so much of Fiji's fuel arrives by way of Singapore rather than directly from a producing country.
Australia ranked second at 15.44% ($478.70 million), and China took 15.03% ($466.07 million). Combined, those three suppliers made up 56.12% of total import value in 2023. New Zealand added 13.64% ($422.96 million), a fourth supplier whose share sits almost as high as China's, rounding out a tight cluster of four major suppliers at the top of the list.
The United States contributed 5.13% ($159.15 million), and Japan added 3.50% ($108.65 million), likely reflecting vehicle imports given Japan's position as a major used-car exporter to Pacific island markets. India took 3.08% ($95.44 million), and Thailand added 2.71% ($84.08 million). Malaysia contributed 2.44% ($75.66 million), and Indonesia closed out the top ten at 1.67% ($51.74 million). Southeast Asian suppliers feature heavily across this list, a pattern that lines up with the same regional trade routes that make Singapore such a dominant supplier at the top.
Fuel Leads Both Sides of Fiji's Trade Ledger
Mineral fuels led every import category, worth $753.06 million, or 24.29% of the total, the same category that also tops Fiji's export list. That isn't a contradiction. Fuel arrives through Singapore's trading network, some gets consumed domestically for power generation and transport, and some gets resold as bunker fuel to ships passing through Fiji's ports, showing up again on the export side of the ledger. Machinery and mechanical appliances ranked second at 9.43% ($292.52 million), and electrical machinery added 6.90% ($213.97 million).
Vehicles contributed 6.43% ($199.25 million), since Fiji has no domestic car assembly industry of its own and imports every vehicle on its roads, whether new or used. Optical, photographic, and medical instruments took 3.86% ($119.66 million), and plastics added 3.41% ($105.63 million), much of it feeding local packaging and manufacturing needs. Cereals contributed 3.20% ($99.22 million), likely rice, a staple Fiji doesn't grow enough of domestically despite its agricultural sector. Iron or steel articles added 2.23% ($69.28 million), tied to ongoing construction and hotel development tied to the tourism sector. Dairy products contributed 2.12% ($65.73 million), and meat and edible meat offal closed out the top ten at 1.82% ($56.35 million), both categories that scale with the food needs of a growing resort and hospitality industry as much as with the domestic population itself.
A Deeper Pandemic Collapse, Then a Full Recovery
Fiji's import total fell even more sharply than its export total during the pandemic. It stood at $2.78 billion in 2019, then collapsed to $1.73 billion in 2020, a much steeper drop than the export side saw that year. Fiji's real GDP growth plummeted to a decline of 17% in 2020 as tourism shutdowns cost over 200,000 Fijians their jobs, dragging import demand down with it since hotels, resorts, and the broader tourism supply chain rely heavily on imported goods.
Imports rebounded to $2.12 billion in 2021, then surged to $3.00 billion in 2022 as tourism reopened its borders, and reached $3.10 billion in 2023, up 3.44% year over year and a new high across this entire five-year window. That import total now sits well above its pre-pandemic 2019 level, tracking the pace of Fiji's tourism recovery closely enough that the two numbers appear to move almost in tandem.
That relationship cuts both ways going forward. A strong tourism season tends to lift Fiji's import bill through everything from jet fuel to imported food and building materials for new resort construction. A slowdown in visitor arrivals would likely show up as softer import demand well before it showed up in any other economic indicator available for this small island nation. For an economy this dependent on both tourism revenue and imported goods at once, the two trends are genuinely difficult to separate in practice, year after year.