Mauritania: Food exports (% of merchandise exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Mauritania's food exports (% of merchandise exports) rose 5.39 percentage points on 2023 (from 20.13% to 25.52%).

Across the 29 yearly changes before that (1963 to 2023), the average change was −0.4 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 7.82 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 12.74 percentage points in 2014 and the biggest yearly fall was 23.78 percentage points in 1963. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is downward, about 2.58 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 48% of the movement over 10 observed years.

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

How it compares

In 2024, Mauritania had the 17th highest value of the 36 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 Mauritania in the 2024 ranking

• Costa Rica — 14th of 36: 32.33%
• Madagascar — 15th of 36: 30.47%
• Namibia — 16th of 36: 27.95%
• Samoa — 18th of 36: 24.75%
• Lesotho — 19th of 36: 23.3%
• Zimbabwe — 20th of 36: 21.6%

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 34 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 Mauritania

• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$5.69 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$4.51 billion (2025)
• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 87.29% (2025)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 65.27% (2023)
• Merchandise imports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise imports) — 0% (2023)
• Merchandise imports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$4.82 billion (2023)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 60.7% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise exports)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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Questions people ask

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

25.52% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1962?

It is down 6.27 percentage points from 31.78% in 1962. The highest value was 53.65% in 2018 and the lowest 3.17% in 1964.

How does Mauritania rank?

17th highest of 36 economies with data for 2024.

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

In 2024, Mauritania's food exports (% of merchandise exports) rose 5.39 percentage points on 2023 (from 20.13% to 25.52%). Across the 29 yearly changes before that (1963 to 2023), the average change was −0.4 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 7.82 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

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.

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