Mauritius Import Data: $6.28B in 2023, Down 5.07%

Fuel and Vehicles Top a Broad Import List

Mauritius imported $6.28 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 5.07% from $6.62 billion in 2022. Mineral fuels led every category at 20.58% of the total, worth $1.29 billion. The island has no oil or gas production of its own, so every liter of fuel that powers its vehicles, factories and tourism sector arrives by ship. Vehicles followed at 9.01% ($565.91 million), a category that covers everything from private cars to the buses and trucks that move goods and tourists around the island. Machinery contributed 6.97% ($437.92 million), and electrical machinery added 6.55% ($411.51 million). Neither category reflects heavy domestic industry. Mauritius builds almost none of this equipment itself, so hotels, factories and construction projects all draw on the same imported supply.

Fish and crustaceans made up 4.20% of imports ($263.54 million), a category that likely feeds directly into Mauritius's own tuna canning industry. Spanish and Italian purse seine fleets supply raw catch to canneries on the island before much of it ships back out as prepared, canned tuna. Pharmaceutical products contributed 2.99% ($187.80 million), and plastics added 2.58% ($161.90 million). Cereals supplied 2.54% ($159.80 million), largely rice and wheat the island cannot grow at scale. Precious metals and jewelry articles added 2.24% ($140.91 million), the raw diamonds, gold and gemstones that feed the same manufacturing sector responsible for a meaningful share of Mauritius's jewelry exports. Dairy products closed out the top ten at 1.98% ($124.39 million), a modest line item by comparison.

China Supplies Goods, the Gulf Supplies Fuel and Gold

China supplied 15.81% of Mauritius's imports in 2023, worth $993.08 million, more than any other country, spanning everything from machinery to consumer goods. That single relationship is broader than any specific commodity story. It reflects China's position as a general manufacturing supplier to nearly every country in the fact sheet database, not a Mauritius-specific arrangement tied to one industry the way most of the country's other top partners are. The UAE followed at 11.08% ($695.75 million), a share that reflects both fuel trade and a second, less obvious connection. Dubai has become one of the world's largest gold trading hubs, re-exporting gold to more than 120 countries after connecting producing nations to buyers worldwide. Some of the raw gold feeding Mauritius's jewelry manufacturing sector likely passes through Dubai on its way to the island.

India took third at 10.23% ($642.61 million). India exports petroleum products, pharmaceuticals and textiles to Mauritius, a relationship formalized in 2021 through the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement, India's first trade deal with an African country. South Africa supplied 7.28% ($457.16 million), and France contributed 6.11% ($384.05 million), the reverse side of a trade relationship that also ranks among Mauritius's top export markets. Germany added 3.31% ($208.23 million), and Japan supplied 3.05% ($191.80 million), likely reflecting the vehicles category given Japan's strength in auto manufacturing. Oman contributed 2.83% ($177.94 million), another Gulf fuel supplier. Spain and Italy rounded out the top ten at 2.39% ($149.95 million) and 2.20% ($138.15 million), the same two countries whose fishing fleets keep Mauritius's canneries supplied with raw tuna.

A Post-Pandemic Peak Now Fading

Import values swung sharply over the past five years before starting to ease. The total stood at $5.60 billion in 2019, then dropped to $4.22 billion in 2020 as the pandemic froze trade and tourism-linked demand alike. It climbed back to $5.15 billion in 2021, then jumped to $6.62 billion in 2022, the high point of the period. It eased to $6.28 billion in 2023, down 5.07% from that peak.

That 2022 spike lines up with the same period when global fuel prices surged worldwide, and mineral fuels make up more than a fifth of everything Mauritius buys from abroad. A calmer energy market in 2023 explains much of the pullback on its own, without needing a broader slowdown in consumer demand or manufacturing activity to account for the rest. With an import bill this dependent on a single volatile commodity, Mauritius will keep feeling global energy swings more directly than most of its export categories ever do. The rest of the import list is comparatively stable. Vehicles, machinery and pharmaceuticals track the pace of tourism investment and general economic activity more than any single price shock, which is part of why the swings outside the fuel category have stayed far more modest across the same five-year stretch.