Liberia: Food exports (% of merchandise exports)

Key figures

Over five years it is up 17.12 percentage points from 7.34% in 2018. Since 1963 it is up 20.98 percentage points from 3.49% in 1963. The World Bank has no value for 37 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2023, Liberia's food exports (% of merchandise exports) rose 7.37 percentage points on 2022 (from 17.09% to 24.46%).

Across the 19 yearly changes before that (1971 to 2022), the average change was +0.81 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 4.16 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.6 standard deviations above that average, so it was larger than a typical year, though not out of the range seen before.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 14.75 percentage points in 2021 and the biggest yearly fall was 3.36 percentage points in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2023, Liberia had the 10th highest value of the 23 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 Liberia in the 2023 ranking

• Burundi — 6th of 23: 46.02%
• Dominica — 7th of 23: 41.22%
• Eswatini — 8th of 23: 29.7%
• Lao PDR — 10th of 23: 23.23%
• Cameroon — 11th of 23: 22.85%
• West Bank and Gaza — 12th of 23: 21.4%

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 exports which is comprised of goods whose economic ownership is changed between a resident and a non-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 24 values

Food exports (% of merchandise exports) in nearby economies

• Angola — 0.54% (2025)
• Benin — 39.66% (2024)
• Botswana — 1.85% (2023)
• Burkina Faso — 7.09% (2024)
• Burundi — 46.02% (2023)
• Cabo Verde — 86.39% (2024)
• Cameroon — 22.85% (2023)
• Central African Republic — 0.22% (2024)
• Comoros — 88.54% (2023)
• Congo, Dem. Rep. — 1.34% (2024)

More private sector & trade data for Liberia

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 86.96% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$2.49 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$2.07 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 75.97% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise exports) — 0% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$153.7 million (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 20.52% (2023)
• Merchandise imports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise imports) — 0% (2023)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Liberia's food exports (% of merchandise exports)?

24.46% in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1963?

It is up 20.98 percentage points from 3.49% in 1963. The highest value was 24.46% in 2023 and the lowest 3.19% in 2020.

How does Liberia rank?

10th highest of 23 economies with data for 2023.

Is the latest change in food exports (% of merchandise exports) unusual for Liberia?

In 2023, Liberia's food exports (% of merchandise exports) rose 7.37 percentage points on 2022 (from 17.09% to 24.46%). Across the 19 yearly changes before that (1971 to 2022), the average change was +0.81 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 4.16 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.6 standard deviations above that average, so it was larger than a typical year, though not out of the range seen before.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TX.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.

Want to ask your own questions of data like this? Try AnalyzeIt: upload a file or ask about public data in plain words, and every figure comes with its working.