World - Food imports (% of merchandise imports)

The value for Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in World was 9.04 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 58 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 20.55 in 1962 and a minimum value of 6.18 in 2006.

Definition: Food comprises the commodities in SITC sections 0 (food and live animals), 1 (beverages and tobacco), and 4 (animal and vegetable oils and fats) and SITC division 22 (oil seeds, oil nuts, and oil kernels).

Source: World Bank staff estimates through the WITS platform from the Comtrade database maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division.

See also:

Year Value
1962 20.55
1963 19.93
1964 19.14
1965 18.54
1966 18.55
1967 17.58
1968 16.55
1969 15.65
1970 15.35
1971 15.11
1972 14.57
1973 15.06
1974 13.81
1975 14.17
1976 12.74
1977 12.85
1978 12.38
1979 11.41
1980 10.80
1981 10.72
1982 10.58
1983 11.04
1984 10.50
1985 9.53
1986 9.88
1987 9.70
1990 8.65
1991 8.97
1992 8.62
1993 8.23
1994 8.47
1995 8.44
1996 8.60
1997 8.03
1998 8.16
1999 7.91
2000 6.97
2001 7.28
2002 7.41
2003 7.39
2004 6.88
2005 6.49
2006 6.18
2007 6.53
2008 6.82
2009 7.81
2010 7.39
2011 7.54
2012 7.50
2013 7.75
2014 7.93
2015 8.35
2016 8.64
2017 8.49
2018 8.06
2019 8.16
2020 9.04

Limitations and Exceptions: 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.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The classification of commodity groups is based on the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) revision 3.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Merchandise import shares may not sum to 100 percent because of unclassified trade.

Classification

Topic: Private Sector & Trade Indicators

Sub-Topic: Imports