01Key Takeaways
- Gambia exported $83.45 million worth of goods in 2023, up 51.97% from $54.91 million in 2022, more than tripling its export total since 2019.
- Mineral fuels led every export category at 72.03% ($60.11 million), even though Gambia produces no oil of its own.
- Guinea-Bissau bought 71.02% of exports, worth $59.27 million, Gambia's top single destination by a wide margin.
- Gambia's top three destinations, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and China, made up 88.54% of total export value in 2023.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $24.6M | $25.9M | $26.4M | $54.9M | $83.4M |
03Top Export Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guinea-Bissau | $59.3M | 71.0% |
| 2 | Mali | $8.8M | 10.6% |
| 3 | China | $5.8M | 6.9% |
| 4 | India | $2.4M | 2.8% |
| 5 | Senegal | $1.3M | 1.6% |
| 6 | United Kingdom | $1.2M | 1.4% |
| 7 | Vietnam | $838.7K | 1.0% |
| 8 | Spain | $745.4K | 0.9% |
| 9 | Turkey | $619.3K | 0.7% |
| 10 | South Korea | $563.3K | 0.7% |
04Top Export Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $60.1M | 72.0% |
| 2 | Sugars and Sugar Confectionery | $4.7M | 5.7% |
| 3 | Animal or Vegetable Fats and Oils and their Cleavage Products; Prepared Edible Fats; Animal or Vegetable Waxes | $2.9M | 3.5% |
| 4 | Edible Fruit and Nuts; Peel of Citrus Fruit or Melons | $2.9M | 3.5% |
| 5 | Oil Seeds and Oleaginous Fruits; Miscellaneous Grains, Seeds and Fruit; Industrial or Medicinal Plants; Straw and Fodder | $2.7M | 3.3% |
| 6 | Fish and Crustaceans, Molluscs and other Aquatic Invertebrates | $2.5M | 3.0% |
| 7 | Preparations of Vegetables, Fruit, Nuts or other parts of Plants | $1.9M | 2.3% |
| 8 | Salt; Sulphur; Earths and Stone; Plastering Materials, Lime and Cement | $1.5M | 1.8% |
| 9 | Iron and Steel | $975.4K | 1.2% |
| 10 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $745.2K | 0.9% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
A Country With No Oil Wells Exports Mostly Fuel
Gambia exported $83.45 million worth of goods in 2023, up 51.97% from $54.91 million the year before. Mineral fuels led every category by a wide margin, worth $60.11 million, or 72.03% of the total, a strange result for a country with no domestic oil production of its own. The Gambia has established itself as a sub-regional re-export hub, and the Port of Banjul handles about 90% of the country's trade while serving neighboring nations including Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal. Fuel imported through Banjul and sold onward to neighboring markets, rather than fuel Gambia extracts or refines itself, is almost certainly what this export category actually represents.
Sugars and sugar confectionery ranked a distant second at 5.67% ($4.73 million), and animal, vegetable, or microbial fats and oils added 3.52% ($2.94 million). Fruit and nuts contributed 3.45% ($2.88 million), and oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, mainly groundnuts, added 3.29% ($2.75 million), a category tied to a crop that has anchored Gambia's farm economy for generations. Crops generate approximately 40% of Gambia's foreign exchange earnings and employ around 70% of the country's labor force, with groundnut, cotton, sesame, and horticulture production forming the backbone of that cash-crop sector. That long agricultural history explains why oil seeds still show up on this export list at all, even though the category is now just a small fraction of the size of the re-exported fuel trade that dwarfs it.
Fish and crustaceans took 2.97% ($2.48 million), a category that reflects Gambia's small but real Atlantic fishing industry. Preparations of vegetables, fruit, or nuts added 2.27% ($1.89 million), and salt, sulphur, and stone contributed 1.76% ($1.47 million). Iron and steel took 1.17% ($0.98 million), and vehicles closed out the top ten at 0.89% ($0.75 million), likely tied to the same re-export activity that dominates the fuel category, since Gambia manufactures no vehicles of its own. Outside of fuel, no single category here reaches even 6% of the total, and the gap between mineral fuels and everything beneath it is enormous by the standards of any country covered on this site.
Guinea-Bissau Buys Almost Three-Quarters of Everything Gambia Sells
Guinea-Bissau bought 71.02% of Gambia's exports in 2023, worth $59.27 million, an extraordinarily concentrated single destination for any country covered on this site. Mali followed at 10.60% ($8.85 million), and China took 6.93% ($5.78 million), rounding out a top three that made up 88.54% of total export value. Both Guinea-Bissau and landlocked Mali fit the re-export pattern already visible in the category data above: neither produces meaningful oil of its own, and both sit within easy reach of the Port of Banjul.
India added 2.82% ($2.35 million), and Senegal contributed 1.58% ($1.32 million). Senegal is Gambia's only land neighbor, wrapping around the country on every side but the Atlantic coastline, which makes its relatively small export share here somewhat surprising given how much regional trade generally flows between the two. The United Kingdom took 1.43% ($1.19 million), and Vietnam added 1.01% ($0.84 million). Spain contributed 0.89% ($0.75 million), Turkey took 0.74% ($0.62 million), and South Korea closed out the top ten at 0.68% ($0.56 million). Every destination outside the top three combined adds up to barely a tenth of Gambia's total export value.
An Export Total That Has More Than Tripled Since 2019
Gambia's export total grew slowly at first, then accelerated sharply. It stood at $24.60 million in 2019, then edged up to $25.86 million in 2020, largely unaffected by the pandemic disruption that hit many larger exporters harder. It rose again to $26.40 million in 2021, still a modest, gradual pace of growth.
Then the total more than doubled to $54.91 million in 2022, and jumped again to $83.45 million in 2023, up 51.97% year over year. That acceleration lines up closely with the timeline of global fuel prices surging after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Higher fuel prices would have made re-export through Banjul considerably more lucrative in dollar terms, even without any change in the physical volume of fuel actually moving through the port. A small re-export economy like Gambia's can see its headline export figures swing sharply based on price movements happening thousands of miles away, in markets it has no influence over. Whether Gambia's export total keeps climbing at this pace, or whether it settles back down once regional fuel prices normalize, will likely depend more on developments in global energy markets than on anything specific to Gambia's own economy or production.