Xifres de comerç exterior de Benín

Foreign Trade in Figures

Benin is open to foreign trade, which represents 51% of its GDP (World Bank). The country is a member of various trade organizations, including the World Trade Organization and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The vast majority of its trade passes through the port of Cotonou. Benin mainly exports cotton (48% of the total in 2023), coconuts, brazil nuts and cashew nuts (10.7%), soya beans (8.7%), petroleum oils (3.8%), and other oil seeds and oleaginous fruits (3.6%); whereas imports are led by rice (16.7%), petroleum oils (12.6%), palm oil (3.8%), medicaments (3.3%), and meat and edible offal of fowls (3.2% - data Comtrade).

The country’s main export partners are Bangladesh (37.2%), India (15.4%), Pakistan (7.2%), Togo (5.4%), China (5.3%), and the United Arab Emirates (4.3%), while imports come chiefly from India (17.1%), China (12.8%), France (8.6%), the United States (5.2%), and Nigeria (5.2% - data Comtrade 2023). Benin's export per capita has nearly doubled over the past 20 years but remains below the expected trend. Efforts to diversify exports are ongoing and driven by infrastructure investments and the strategic advantages of the Port of Cotonou. Cotton, the country’s traditional export product, remains vulnerable to weather-related shocks, the same as cashews.

Benin has a structurally negative trade balance, estimated at 9% of GDP in 2023 (from 7.6% one year earlier – World Bank). This is mainly due to low exports, which are largely made up of low-cost agricultural products, and the country’s heavy reliance on foreign countries for its oil and energy supply. According to WTO data, in 2023, Benin exported goods with a total value of USD 4 billion while it imported goods worth USD 4.2 billion. According to the national statistics bureau, during the second quarter of 2024, Benin's goods exports decreased by 12.9% compared to the previous quarter, while goods imports dropped by 13.2% during the same period.