Liberia Import Trade Data: $2.16B in 2023, Up 12.83%

Fuel and Rice Dominate a Heavily Import-Dependent Economy

Liberia imported $2.16 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 12.83% from $1.92 billion in 2022. Mineral fuels topped every import category at 31.93% of the total, worth $690.72 million. Neighboring Côte d'Ivoire runs one of the more efficient oil refineries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and its coastal location makes it a natural regional supplier of refined petroleum products. Liberia has no refining capacity of its own, so it depends entirely on imported fuel, and shipments from a nearby regional refinery are far cheaper to bring in than fuel sourced from further afield. Cereals, overwhelmingly rice, ranked second at 11.19% ($242.14 million). A government attempt to raise rice prices in April 1979 set off deadly riots that killed dozens, and the political fallout left rice imports politically untouchable ever since, deepening urban dependency on foreign supply. That history still shapes how much of the country's staple food arrives from abroad rather than from Liberian farms, and it has made rice policy politically sensitive in a way few other food categories are.

Vehicles ranked third at 10.88% ($235.47 million), largely used cars purchased abroad rather than new vehicles built domestically. Machinery contributed 7.42% ($160.55 million), and electrical machinery added 4.48% ($96.96 million). Iron or steel articles supplied 2.60% ($56.32 million), and plastics contributed 2.37% ($51.24 million). Meat and edible offal added 2.35% ($50.86 million), another food category underscoring how much of Liberia's diet depends on imports rather than local production. Animal and vegetable fats and oils, the same broad category that dominates Liberia's export list as palm oil, appeared on the import side too at 1.88% ($40.70 million), reflecting demand for cooking oils and fats beyond what domestic palm plantations supply. Salt, sulphur, stone and cement closed out the top ten at 1.73% ($37.38 million), materials tied mostly to ordinary construction activity rather than any single large infrastructure project. Taken together, these smaller categories point to an economy still building out basic industrial and construction capacity from a low base, buying the inputs for growth rather than producing them domestically.

Côte d'Ivoire Supplies Nearly a Third of Everything Liberia Buys

Côte d’Ivoire supplied 30.34% of Liberia's imports in 2023, worth $656.34 million, more than any other source, a share that lines up closely with its role as a regional refined-fuel exporter. China ranked second at 16.72% ($361.76 million), and India followed closely at 15.76% ($340.89 million). India's position on this list traces directly back to rice: the country is one of the world's largest rice exporters, and Liberia's heavy reliance on imported rice as a staple food makes India a natural top supplier. Together, these top three sources made up 62.82% of total import value, with two of the three tied directly to essentials, fuel and food, that a country like Liberia has limited ability to source domestically.

United States supplied 3.73% ($80.60 million), and Japan added 2.71% ($58.68 million). Brazil contributed 1.97% ($42.69 million), and United Arab Emirates supplied 1.92% ($41.45 million). Indonesia added 1.76% ($38.17 million), and Turkey contributed 1.62% ($35.02 million). Egypt closed out the top ten at 1.48% ($31.97 million).

Imports Have Nearly Doubled Since a 2020 Low Point

Liberia's import total has climbed steadily since 2020 after an early dip. It stood at $1.22 billion in 2019, eased slightly to $1.19 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted trade, then jumped to $1.70 billion in 2021. It climbed further to $1.92 billion in 2022 and reached $2.16 billion in 2023, its fifth straight year of growth apart from that small 2020 pullback.

That steady climb runs in the opposite direction from Liberia's exports over the same period, which peaked in 2020 on pandemic-driven rubber demand before falling for three straight years. The result is a widening gap between what Liberia sells abroad and what it buys, a pattern common among countries whose export base rests on one or two commodities while daily necessities like fuel and rice must be sourced almost entirely from outside. As long as domestic refining and rice production remain limited, Liberia's import bill will likely keep growing roughly in step with population and economic activity, regardless of how its narrow export categories perform in any given year. That asymmetry leaves Liberia's trade balance dependent on outside financing, whether through aid, remittances or investment, to cover the difference between what it earns abroad and what it needs to buy. Efforts to expand domestic rice production or attract refining investment would directly narrow that gap, but progress on either front has historically been slow.