Tonga: Food imports (% of merchandise imports)

Key figures

Over five years it is up 0.66 percentage points from 29.22% in 2020. Since 1975 it is down 4.52 percentage points from 34.4% in 1975. The World Bank has no value for 15 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 6.59 percentage points in 2008 and the biggest yearly fall was 7.68 percentage points in 2022. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2017 to 2025 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 12% of the movement over 8 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

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

How it compares

In 2025, Tonga had the 1st 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 Tonga in the 2025 ranking

• Faroe Islands — 2nd of 103: 29.02%
• Montenegro — 3rd of 103: 23.61%
• Bermuda — 4th of 103: 22.79%

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 36 values

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in nearby economies

• Australia — 6.51% (2025)
• Brunei Darussalam — 8.3% (2025)
• Cambodia — 7.41% (2024)
• China — 8.01% (2025)
• Fiji — 19.45% (2025)
• French Polynesia — 17.61% (2025)
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 2.78% (2025)
• Indonesia — 10.21% (2025)
• Japan — 9.79% (2025)
• Kiribati — 41.44% (2021)

More private sector & trade data for Tonga

• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$255 million (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$13 million (2025)
• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 39.46% (2025)
• Computer, communications and other services (% of commercial service imports) — 32.75% (2025)
• Commercial service imports (current US$) — US$169.35 million (2025)
• Transport services (% of commercial service imports) — 24.33% (2025)
• Travel services (% of commercial service imports) — 40.27% (2025)
• Computer, communications and other services (% of commercial service exports) — 11.76% (2025)
• Commercial service exports (current US$) — US$102.8 million (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

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

29.89% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1975?

It is down 4.52 percentage points from 34.4% in 1975. The highest value was 35.8% in 1976 and the lowest 19.76% in 2002.

How does Tonga rank?

1st highest of 103 economies with data for 2025.

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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