At present, in the era of economic globalization, all countries in the world are participating in international trade, and commodity exports are the main way for most countries to obtain foreign exchange earnings. However, countries are in different positions in the international supply chain, and the commodities they export are also different, so let's take a look at what the main commodities of each country export today.
Data from the World Trade Organization (WTO), The Atlas of Economic Complexity and TrendEconomy, with the latest data from 2021.
Commodities are divided into these categories.
Fossil fuels, mainly oil, natural gas and coal.
Metal minerals, including gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, etc.
Gemstones, including a variety of colored gemstones, diamonds and jade.
Agricultural products, including rice, corn, wheat, soybeans, coffee, sugar cane, fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and milk, aquatic products, wool and other commodities produced by the primary industry.
Textiles, mainly including clothing, leather goods, towels, etc.
Chemicals, mainly including drugs, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, rubber, pigments, etc.
Mechanical products, mainly including motor vehicles and spare parts, ships, aircraft, machine tools, etc.
Electronic products, mainly including integrated circuits, communication equipment, storage devices, etc.
Those who do not fall into the above categories are classified as others.
We look at the continents, starting with Asia.
Most of the countries in Western Asia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in Central Asia, Brunei, Indonesia and Timor-Leste in Southeast Asia mainly export fossil fuels, and they mainly export oil and gas.
And India and Outer Mongolia.
India's largest export commodity is fossil fuels, mainly refined oil, which accounts for 14% of total commodity exports. India's crude oil production is not high, but it will import crude oil from West Asia, refine it into refined oil and export it, and India's refined oil exports can rank fifth in the world.
Mongolia's largest export commodity is coal, which accounts for about 32%.
The main exporters of metal minerals are three other Central Asian stans, Armenia, Lebanon and Bhutan.
Three Stans and Lebanon mainly export gold, Armenia mainly exports copper ore, and Bhutan mainly exports ferroalloys.
The main agricultural exports are Afghanistan, Nepal, Georgia, Palestine and Maldives.
Afghanistan is rich in minerals, but difficult to mine and transport.
Maldives mainly exports fish meat and fish oil, with 85% of its exports related to fish.
The main textile exports are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia. Since the beginning of this century, China has gradually shifted the textile industry chain to Southeast Asia.
Cambodia, for example, had timber in 1995 and about 87 per cent of its exports in 2005.
South Asia was very prosperous as early as the British colonial period, forming a cotton textile industry centered on Mumbai and a linen textile industry centered on Kolkata. Textiles have been Pakistan's main exports for decades of independence, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Jordan is the main exporter of chemicals, with about 23 per cent of exports being fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and plastics.
The main exports of machinery products are Japan, Thailand and Turkey, and the largest proportion is automobiles and spare parts, accounting for 18%, 12% and 11% of the three countries' export goods. Japan is the third largest in the world in terms of automobile production; Thailand's automobile production ranks first in Southeast Asia and tenth in the world; Turkey ranks first in West Asia and 13th in the world in terms of automobile production.
The main exporters of electronic products are China, the two peninsulars, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore and Israel. The largest proportion is integrated circuits, communication equipment, storage devices, etc. China and South Korea alone export 53% of the world's total exports of integrated circuits.
CX's largest exports are insulation materials and batteries, accounting for 20%.
Vietnam's semiconductor industry has developed rapidly in recent years, thanks to the industrial transfer and investment of Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, China and Singapore, Vietnam's largest export commodity in 2014 is textiles, and in 2015 it became electronic products.
The other product is only Laos, and the largest export commodity is electricity, which accounts for 27.5% of its exports. Laos is located in the tropical plateau, with abundant river water and large drops, abundant water energy resources, and dozens of hydropower stations, which not only achieve self-sufficiency in electricity, but also export electricity to Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Most European countries mainly export machinery products, mainly centered on the German automobile industry, and neighboring countries provide spare parts for the German automobile industry.
Russia and Norway are oil and gas, accounting for 40% of Russia's exports and 52% of Norway's exports.
Montenegro is home to metallic minerals such as aluminum, lead, zinc and so on.
Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria and Iceland are agricultural products. Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria mainly export cereals and sunflower oil, Belarus mainly exports meat and dairy products, Iceland mainly exports fish meat and fish oil, and Greenland and the Faroe Islands also export fish meat and fish oil.
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania are textiles.
Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark and Slovenia are mainly medicinal chemicals.
Serbia and Malta are electronics.
South America's northern countries and Canada mainly export fossil fuels.
Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Suriname and Panama mainly export metal minerals.
Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and many Central American countries mainly export agricultural products.
Argentina is cereal, Brazil and Paraguay are soybeans, Uruguay is beef, Central America is mainly bananas and coffee, and Cuba is cigars and cane sugar.
El Salvador and Haiti are textiles.
The United States and Mexico are mechanical products. Mexico has the advantage of being close to the United States and the cost advantage of cheap labor, and has undertaken a lot of manufacturing from the United States, especially the automobile industry. Automobiles account for 23% of Mexico's merchandise exports.
Most countries in Africa mainly export fuels and metal minerals.
The main agricultural exports of the Horn of Africa, Kenya, parts of West Africa and five island countries are agricultural products.
Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho mainly export diamonds.
Morocco mainly exports chemical products based on fertilizers.
Tunisia mainly exports electronics.
Australia and Papua New Guinea mainly export metal minerals. Australia is iron ore, and PNG is gold and copper.
Other island countries mainly export agricultural products. New Zealand is meat and dairy, and other small island nations are fish.
Finally, let's take a look at the world overview.
West Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania mainly export primary products, while Europe, East Asia and the United States and Mexico mainly export industrial products.