Merchandise trade by product

by Sonia Blachier · June 7, 2021

Map 1. Main export products, 2022

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 2022, economies in Northern and Central America, Europe and Southern, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia exported mainly manufactured goods. Economies primarily 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 79 per cent of merchandise exports in 2022. Fuels made up 42 per cent. Developing Asia and Oceania relied much less on primary goods exports (28 per cent) than developing economies in Africa and the Americas (54 per cent). Among the three developing regions, developing Asia and Oceania recorded the lowest proportion of food exports (5 per cent), far behind developing America (25 per cent) and developing Africa (11 per cent).

Figure 1. Export structure of developing economies by product group, 2022

(Percentage)

Note: Non-allocated products are not considered.

The uptrend continues in all product groups

Figure 2. Annual growth rate of exports by product group, 2022

(Percentage)

The continued upswing in the value of world merchandise trade in 2022 (see Total merchandise trade) was strongly driven by fuels. Fuels exports increased by 62 per cent, whereas exports of food grew by 10 per cent and that of manufactured goods by only 5 per cent. Exports of ores, metals, precious stones, and non-monetary gold rose by 2 per cent and agricultural raw materials exports recorded a modest increase of 1 per cent.

What do developing regions trade with others?

In 2022, developing economies in Asia and Oceania recorded a merchandise trade surplus of 15 per cent of the value of exports, driven by high exports of manufactured goods. For the developing economies of the Americas as a group, positive trade balances in food, agricultural raw materials, and ores, metals, precious stones, and non-monetary gold were not sufficient to offset a negative trade balance in manufacturing. A trade deficit of 7 per cent of the value of exports remained. In Africa, high imports of manufactured products and negative balance in food were only partly offset by surpluses in fuels, agricultural raw materials and ores, metals, precious stones, and non-monetary gold, leading to a trade deficit 6 per cent of the value of exports.

Figure 3. Developing economies’ extra-trade structure, 2022

(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 HSHarmonized Commodity Description and Coding System and constitute the main source of the figures presented in this section. For correspondence between SITCStandard International Trade Classification codes and the five broad product groups presented in this section, see Classifications page.