Ethiopia’s US$11.2B exports: gold + coffee earn 77.7%
Gold earned US$5.6B and coffee US$3.1B — together US$8.7B. Explore Ethiopia’s provisional 2018 EFY export record and the decade behind it, with every figure sourced.
US$11.2B in goods exports. Gold alone accounts for 50%; gold and coffee together account for 77.7%.
The record is for merchandise, including electricity. Services are separate. These are current US dollars, without an inflation adjustment.
The path to the record
NBE history ends at 2017 EFY. The separate, unconnected 2018 point is a provisional government statement, with a different year boundary.
- 2014: Earlier goods-export record
- 2017: July 2024 · birr float
- 2018: Provisional · official statement
One year, several published figures
These are dated statements, not a final NBE release. The latest figure is retained as provisional until the full tables are available.
What Ethiopia sells
Only gold and coffee are comparable in this statement basket. The remainder includes other goods; unpublished product values are gaps, not zero.
Selected basket total: US$11.2B · 2018EC Source
Shares use the selected total. Missing values are not treated as zero.
Gold
50.0%
US$5.6BCoffee
27.7%
US$3.1BOilseeds
Not published / not comparableLeather & leather products
Not published / not comparablePulses
Not published / not comparableMeat & meat products
Not published / not comparableFruit & vegetables
Not published / not comparableTextiles & garments
Not published / not comparableLive animals
Not published / not comparableKhat
Not published / not comparableFlowers
Not published / not comparableElectricity
Not published / not comparableOther goods
Not published / not comparableOther / not yet allocated
Calculated remainder, not a published commodity figure
US$2.5B
2017 → 2018 EFY · Capital’s rounded statement series only. Other goods are the calculated residual. This is an indicative bridge, not an NBE commodity reconciliation.
More goods, or higher unit values?
Compare consecutive NBE fiscal years. Unit value is export value ÷ quantity, not a market-price index. Quality and product mix can also change it.
| Commodity | Earnings change | Volume change | Unit-value change | Unit-value effect · US$m | Volume effect · US$m | Interaction · US$m | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee | +86.3% | +57.4% | +18.3% | 262.14 | 821.63 | 150.53 | SourceSource |
| Oilseeds | -0.2% | +8.6% | -8.0% | -26.78 | 28.58 | -2.30 | SourceSource |
| Leather & leather products | -12.6% | -12.5% | -0.1% | -0.01 | -2.49 | 0.00 | SourceSource |
| Pulses | -20.4% | -24.7% | +5.7% | 19.54 | -84.82 | -4.82 | SourceSource |
| Meat & meat products | +55.8% | +66.7% | -6.5% | -4.58 | 46.93 | -3.05 | SourceSource |
| Fruit & vegetables | +15.5% | +0.7% | +14.7% | 9.57 | 0.46 | 0.07 | SourceSource |
| Textiles & garments | -1.1% | -0.6% | -0.4% | -0.52 | -0.78 | 0.00 | SourceSource |
| Live animals | +159.5% | +137.5% | +9.3% | 4.04 | 59.81 | 5.55 | SourceSource |
| Khat | -26.1% | -31.6% | +8.1% | 13.25 | -52.06 | -4.19 | SourceSource |
| Gold | +751.9% | +826.2% | -8.0% | -32.77 | 3,375.81 | -270.74 | SourceSource |
| Flowers | +4.2% | +4.5% | -0.3% | -1.32 | 21.18 | -0.06 | SourceSource |
| Electricity | +142.0% | +381.6% | -49.7% | -69.15 | 530.41 | -263.86 | SourceSource |
| Other goods | — | — | — | — | — | — | SourceSource |
Change = Δunit value × prior volume + Δvolume × prior unit value + interaction. Mixed or missing quantities are not decomposed.
Who buys Ethiopian goods?
Latest complete NBE destination year, 2017 EFY. Values are sums of quarterly export columns. Trading hubs are recorded destinations, not necessarily final consumers.
Switzerland
41.7%
US$3.48BSaudi Arabia
5.9%
US$491.4MGermany
5.6%
US$465.6MUnited States
4.6%
US$388MNetherlands
4.2%
US$353.4MUnited Arab Emirates
4.0%
US$332.8MChina
3.2%
US$266.4MBelgium
2.9%
US$239.9MKenya
2.2%
US$180.6MSouth Korea
1.9%
US$159.1MDjibouti
1.8%
US$154.1MJapan
1.5%
US$128MItaly
1.5%
US$123.3MTurkey
1.3%
US$108.1MIsrael
1.2%
US$103.4MIndia
1.0%
US$86.9MSingapore
0.8%
US$64.9MUnited Kingdom
0.7%
US$62MTaiwan
0.7%
US$57.6MAustralia
0.7%
US$57.2MOther destinations
US$791.6MUnspecified
Unspecified includes electricity sold to data miners. Quarterly totals can differ from revised annual commodity totals; they retain their own denominator.
US$249.6M
Sources
Printed total minus row sum: US$0 Source
Coffee destinations · reported observations
Full-year figures are available here only for China. The other observations are first-quarter figures, shown separately and never summed with full-year data.
Gold supplied to the NBE · regional reports
Supply to the central bank is not an export-by-origin series. These reports have incomplete regional coverage and are not added to national export receipts.
NBE annual commodity tables are the historical reference. Ministry and presidential statements remain separate provisional observations. BACI reconciles partner-reported customs flows on calendar years; gold and partner coverage differ. None of these series is summed with another.
NBE uses July–June quarters. Government statements refer to 8 July–7 July. The displayed source periods are retained without moving trade between years.
Exports · sources & definitionsAnnual data · native US$m
| Source | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008EC · 2015/16 | 2,867.7 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2009EC · 2016/17 | 2,907.5 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2010EC · 2017/18 | 2,836.1 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2011EC · 2018/19 | 2,666.5 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2012EC · 2019/20 | 2,987.7 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2013EC · 2020/21 | 3,596.6 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2014EC · 2021/22 | 4,101.5 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2015EC · 2022/23 | 3,624.3 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2016EC · 2023/24 | 3,798.7 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2017EC · 2024/25 | 8,347.2 | NBE · July–June | Source |
| 2018EC · 2025/26 | 11,200 | Statement · 8 July–7 July | Source |