The Republic of Chad, a landlocked country in Central Africa, exported goods valued at US$2.224 billion in 2021. From $1.34 billion in 2017, that expected sum has increased by 66%.

In comparison to $1.71 billion in 2020, the total value of goods exported from Chad increased by 30.4% per year.

Crude oil, oil seeds, natural gums, resins, or balsams are Chad’s top three exports in terms of value. That trio of exports will account for 99.1% of all Chadian exports in 2021. This high percentage is a result of Chad’s heavily concentrated export product portfolio.

Chad’s major trading partners

According to the most recent data available, importers in the following countries purchased 99.6% of the goods exported from Chad here: 

• Germany (47.8% of the global total),
• Taiwan (20.9%), 
• France (9%), 
• mainland China (8.8%),
• the Netherlands (6.8%), 
• Turkey (4.9%), 
• Saudi Arabia (0.7%),
• the United States (0.19%), 
• India (0.15%), 
• Egypt (0.13%), 
• Pakistan (0.1%), and
• Indonesia (0.1%).

From a continental standpoint, 42.1% of Chad’s exports by value were sold to importers in Europe, while 57.2% went to Asian nations.

A further 0.4% of Chad’s exports were to other African nations. Smaller percentages went to Oceania’s Australia and New Zealand (0.02%), North America (0.3%), and Latin America (0.009%), which excludes Mexico but includes the Caribbean.

Chad’s overall exports in 2021 are projected to amount to $2.224 billion, which is equivalent to roughly $130 per person in the Central African nation given its population of 16.9 million people. This dollar value is significantly higher than the national average of $90 per capita in the year 2020.

Top 10 exports from Chad

At the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level, the following export product groupings will account for the majority of Chadian global shipments in 2021 in terms of dollar value. Additionally displayed is the percentage of total Chadian exports that each export category accounts for.

• Mineral fuels including oil: US$2.1 billion (92.4% of total exports)
• Oil seeds: $131.1 million (5.9%)
• $20.4 million for gums, resins, and other vegetable saps (0.9 percent ) 
• Cotton: $6.9 million (0.3%)
• Gems, precious metals: $5.5 million (0.2%)
• Machinery including computers: $3 million (0.1%)
• Optical, technical, and medical apparatus: $510,000 (0.02%)
• $444,000 for raw hides, skins (not furskins), and leather (0.02 percent )
• Electrical machinery, and equipment: $438,000 (0.02%)
• Inorganic chemicals: $176,000 (0.01%)
• 99.9% of the total value of Chad’s international shipments was made up of its top 10 exports.

The top 10 export categories’ fastest-growing sector is inorganic chemicals, which increased by 877.8% between 2020 and 2021.

Machines, including computers, came in second for increasing export sales with a 195.7% increase.

The third-fastest value increase was seen in Chad’s shipments of raw hides, skins other than furskins, and leather, which increased by 85%.

Gems and precious metals experienced the largest decline among Chad’s top 10 export product categories, falling by -97.4%. Stronger coin sales, including legal tender coins, drove that reduction year over year.

In 2021, crude oil (92.3% of total exports), oil seeds (5.8%), natural gums, resins, and balsams (0.9%), unguarded cotton (0.3%), coins (0.2%), and unroasted groundnuts (0.1%) were Chad’s most valuable exports.

Market Overview 

Chad’s economy is based on agriculture and oil. The majority of export earnings and government revenue comes from oil. Chad’s main non-oil exports include cattle, cotton, gold, gum arabic, sesame, and sesame seeds. Subsistence farming and livestock raising are the main sources of income for the majority of Chadians. Despite persistently low global oil prices and a 2016–2017 economic crisis that decreased investment spending, the government is still planning to diversify the economy, increase the export of value-added goods, and establish a formal economy by 2030. In 2020, COVID-19 restricted regional trade and reduced consumer purchasing power.

According to the International Trade Centre, as of 2018, China accounted for 23% of Chad’s imports, followed by the United Arab Emirates (14%), France (11%), the United States (7%), Qatar (4%), Turkey (4%), India (4%), and the Netherlands (4%). The country that imports the most oil from Chad determines who is its main export partner. According to the International Trade Centre, India accounted for 30% of Chad’s exports in 2018, followed by the United States (29%), the Netherlands (23%), the United Arab Emirates (8%), and China (5%). According to preliminary 2019 data, China accounted for 42 percent of Chad’s exports, which were almost entirely crude oil.