Djibouti: Food imports (% of merchandise imports)

Key figures

Since 1962 it is up 9.23 percentage points from 29.33% in 1962. The World Bank has no value for 50 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

How it compares

In 2023, Djibouti had the 2nd highest value of the 24 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Djibouti in the 2023 ranking

• Comoros — 1st of 24: 42.07%
• São Tomé and Principe — 3rd of 24: 31.81%
• West Bank and Gaza — 4th of 24: 30.92%
• Aruba — 5th of 24: 30.75%

What this measures

Food comprises the commodities in SITC (Rev. 3) sections 0 (food and live animals), 1 (beverages and tobacco), and 4 (animal and vegetable oils and fats) and division 22 (oil seeds, oil nuts, and oil kernels). This indicator is expressed as a percentage of merchandise imports which is comprised of goods whose economic ownership is changed between a non-resident and a resident and that are not included in the following specific categories: goods under merchanting, non-monetary gold, and parts of travel, construction, and government goods and services n.i.e.

Limitations: Previous editions contained data based on the SITC revision 1. Data for earlier years in previous editions may differ because of the change in methodology. Concordance tables are available to convert data reported in one system to another.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 12 values

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 26.92% (2019)
• Algeria — 28.2% (2024)
• Bahrain — 15.01% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 19.05% (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 26.1% (2023)
• Iraq — 14.24% (2024)
• Israel — 11.31% (2025)
• Jordan — 20.67% (2024)
• Kuwait — 16.04% (2025)
• Lebanon — 18.55% (2024)
• Libya

More private sector & trade data for Djibouti

• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$6.26 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$6.09 billion (2025)
• Merchandise imports from economies in the Arab World (% of total merchandise imports) — 28.16% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 37.49% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports) — 59.96% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in East Asia & Pacific (% of total merchandise imports) — 27.7% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in Middle East & North Africa (% of total merchandise imports)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Djibouti's food imports (% of merchandise imports)?

38.56% in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1962?

It is up 9.23 percentage points from 29.33% in 1962. The highest value was 42.72% in 1980 and the lowest 22.77% in 1984.

How does Djibouti rank?

2nd highest of 24 economies with data for 2023.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Comtrade database, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Statistics Division; World Integrated Trade Solution system (WITS); Staff estimates, World Bank (WB).

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.FOOD.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Comtrade database, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Statistics Division; World Integrated Trade Solution system (WITS); Staff estimates, World Bank (WB) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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