Merchandise trade by product

by Sonia Blachier · June 7, 2021

Map 1. Main export products, 2021

Note: Top 10 exporting economies are shown in the default selection.

Regional specialization patterns

The supply of goods to the world market has a regional pattern. In 2021, economies in Northern and Central America, Europe and Southern, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia exported mainly manufactured goods. Economies mainly exporting fuels were located along the northern coast of South America, in Middle and Northern Africa and Western and Central Asia.

In Africa, primary goods accounted for 77 per cent of merchandise exports in 2021. Fuels made up 44 per cent. Developing Asia and Oceania relied much less on primary goods exports (24 per cent) than developing economies in Africa and the Americas. Among the three developing regions, developing America recorded the largest proportion of food exports (24 per cent), and developing Asia and Oceania the lowest (5 per cent).

Figure 1. Export structure of developing economies by product group, 2021

(Percentage)

Note: Non-allocated products are not considered.

Trade rebound in all product groups

Figure 2. Annual growth rate of exports by product group, 2021

(Percentage)

The global rebound of merchandise trade in 2021 (see Total merchandise trade) was intensely driven by the surge in fuels trade. Fuels exports increased sharply, by 72 per cent. Exports of ores, metals, precious stones, and non-monetary gold grew by 34 per cent and exports of agricultural raw materials increased by 32 per cent. Exports of food grew by 18 per cent, just behind the 22 per cent growth of manufactured goods.

What do developing regions trade with others?

In 2021, developing economies in Asia and Oceania recorded a merchandise trade surplus of 10 per cent driven by high exports of manufactured goods. Africa’s high imports of manufactured products were only partly offset by surpluses in fuel and in ores, metals, precious stones, and monetary gold. Overall, a nine per cent trade deficit remained. In developing economies of the Americas, positive trade balances in food, in agricultural raw materials, and in ores, metals, precious stones, and monetary gold were not enough to offset a negative trade balance in manufacturing. Five per cent trade deficit persisted.

Figure 3. Developing economies’ extra-trade structure, 2021

(Percentage of exports)

Note: Non-allocated products are not considered.

Concepts and definitions

The breakdown of merchandise trade by product group is based on the entries in the customs declarations that are coded in accordance with a globally harmonized classification system, called the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HSHarmonized Commodity Description and Coding System). The values of the individual customs declarations have been summed up to the level of product group, error-checked and submitted to the United Nations Statistics Division for integration in the UN Comtrade database -—
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The UN Comtrade database contains product breakdowns based on the Standard International Trade Classification (SITCStandard International Trade Classification). These have been obtained by conversion of the raw data coded in HS and constitute the main source of the figures presented in this section. For correspondence between SITC codes and the five broad product groups presented in this section, see on the Classifications page.