Panama: Food imports (% of merchandise imports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Panama's food imports (% of merchandise imports) rose 0.24 percentage points on 2024 (from 18.73% to 18.97%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1987 to 2024), the average change was +0.22 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.68 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.0 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 3.79 percentage points in 2021 and the biggest yearly fall was 5.56 percentage points in 2006. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is upward, about 1.14 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 85% 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.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 22.4% for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 0.52%, against 1.8% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2025, Panama had the 19th highest value of the 103 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 Panama in the 2025 ranking

• Fiji — 15th of 103: 19.45%
• Belize — 16th of 103: 19.35%
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 17th of 103: 19.05%
• Dominican Republic — 19th of 103: 18.6%
• Macao SAR, China — 20th of 103: 18.29%
• Bosnia and Herzegovina — 21st of 103: 18.19%

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 57 values

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in nearby economies

• Antigua and Barbuda — 27.67% (2024)
• Argentina — 7.81% (2025)
• Aruba — 30.75% (2023)
• Bahamas, The — 19.96% (2024)
• Barbados — 22.38% (2025)
• Belize — 19.35% (2025)
• Bolivia — 7.62% (2025)
• Brazil — 5.53% (2025)
• Chile — 11.52% (2025)
• Colombia — 13.93% (2025)
• Costa Rica

More private sector & trade data for Panama

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 41.64% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$25.76 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$11.9 billion (2025)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 50% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports) — 23.48% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in Latin America & the Caribbean (% of total merchandise imports) — 26.45% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in South Asia (% of total merchandise imports) — 2% (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 Panama's food imports (% of merchandise imports)?

18.97% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1962?

It is up 5.23 percentage points from 13.75% in 1962. The highest value was 18.97% in 2025 and the lowest 6.29% in 2011.

How does Panama rank?

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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