Solomon Islands: Food exports (% of merchandise exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2018, Solomon Islands' food exports (% of merchandise exports) fell 3.37 percentage points on 2017 (from 23.52% to 20.15%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1973 to 2017), the average change was +0.51 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 8.7 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 standard deviations below 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 26.89 percentage points in 1974 and the biggest yearly fall was 13.48 percentage points in 1973. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2009 to 2018 the straight-line trend is downward, about 1.98 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 70% 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

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

Closest to Solomon Islands in the 2018 ranking

• Guinea-Bissau — 2nd of 6: 68.55%
• Sudan — 3rd of 6: 50.55%
• Sierra Leone — 4th of 6: 45.64%
• Bangladesh — 6th of 6: 3.39%

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 35 values

Food exports (% of merchandise exports) in nearby economies

• Australia — 13.74% (2025)
• Brunei Darussalam — 0.11% (2025)
• Cambodia — 15.38% (2024)
• China — 2.34% (2025)
• Fiji — 55.36% (2025)
• French Polynesia — 7.42% (2025)
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 1.34% (2025)
• Indonesia — 22.92% (2025)
• Japan — 1.28% (2025)
• Kiribati — 97.22% (2021)

More private sector & trade data for Solomon Islands

• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$790 million (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$677 million (2025)
• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 83.85% (2025)
• Insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) — 4.19% (2024)
• Computer, communications and other services (% of commercial service imports) — 44.76% (2024)
• Commercial service imports (current US$) — US$219.27 million (2024)
• Transport services (% of commercial service imports) — 32.84% (2024)
• Commercial service exports (current US$) — US$122.73 million (2024)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

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

20.15% in 2018, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1970?

It is down 35.48 percentage points from 55.63% in 1970. The highest value was 74.37% in 1974 and the lowest 11.35% in 2002.

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

In 2018, Solomon Islands' food exports (% of merchandise exports) fell 3.37 percentage points on 2017 (from 23.52% to 20.15%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1973 to 2017), the average change was +0.51 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 8.7 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

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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