Somalia - Foreign trade

Exports consist largely of livestock (camels, sheep, and goats), bananas, hides, and fish. Principal imports are manufactures, petroleum products, food, and petroleum. Imports also include guns, medicine, and khat (a stimulant leaf chewed by Somalis). Foreign trade is handled by local traders who coordinate transactions despite factional fighting and the lack of a central government. Many traders in the north have relocated from Berbera to Bosaso in order to avoid foreign exchange regulations imposed by the self-proclaimed Somaliland government in the northwest. Livestock is normally driven from northeast Ethiopia to ports, and then shipped to Saudi Arabia. In 1998, Saudi Arabia imposed a 16-month ban on the import of livestock because of low health standards. Government revenues fell from $45 million to $25 million in that year, but the ban was lifted in 1999.

Remittances from Somalis working abroad constitute one of the Somalia's main sources of foreign exchange, reaching an estimated $500 million in 1999.

Principal trading partners in 1998 (in millions of US dollars) were as follows: