Egypt’s Foreign Trade with the World, Africa, and Sudan in 2025

Eng. Monjed Ibrahim Youssef
Economic expert in Egypt–Sudan trade relations
According to data issued by Egypt’s General Organisation for Export and Import Control and the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, and based on an analysis of the official government reference data on Egypt’s foreign trade for 2025, the following emerges:
First: Egypt’s foreign trade with the world
Total Egyptian exports (non-oil) reached USD 48.6 billion, an increase of USD 7 billion, representing 17% growth compared with 2024, when exports stood at USD 41.5 billion.
Total Egyptian imports (non-oil) reached USD 83 billion, an increase of USD 3.7 billion, representing 5% growth compared with 2024 imports of USD 79.3 billion.
Total foreign trade (exports + imports) in 2025 amounted to USD 131.6 billion, an increase of USD 10.7 billion from 2024 (an 8% rise from USD 120.9 billion in 2024). This reflects the resilience of the Egyptian economy after recent difficult years and its capacity for rapid recovery in the coming years, God willing.
The USD 7 billion increase in exports and USD 3.7 billion increase in imports helped improve Egypt’s trade balance. The trade deficit fell to USD 34.4 billion, down by USD 3.4 billion from USD 37.8 billion in 2024—an improvement of 9% in Egypt’s trade balance with the world.
There has been a clear improvement in Egyptian exports, which are approaching USD 50 billion. At the same growth rate, exports are expected to reach USD 60 billion in 2026, driven by strong performance across commodity groups. The export composition in 2025 was as follows:
Building materials: 31%
Chemicals and fertilisers: 19.4%
Food industries: 14%
Engineering and electronic industries: 13.3%
Agricultural produce: 9.7%
Ready-made garments: 7%
Spinning and textiles: 2.4%
Medical industries: 2%
Printing, packaging, and paper: 1.9%
Furnishings: 1.3%
Furniture: 0.9%
Leather and footwear: 0.25%
Second: Egypt’s foreign trade with Africa
Egyptian exports to Africa in 2025 amounted to USD 7.8 billion, while imports from Africa stood at USD 1.9 billion, generating a trade surplus of USD 5.9 billion in Egypt’s favour. (It should be noted that Africa has the potential to support trade with Egypt of up to USD 25 billion, rather than the USD 9.7 billion recorded in 2025, but there are obstacles that will be discussed later.)
Total Egypt–Africa trade reached USD 9.7 billion. When measured against Egypt’s total foreign trade of USD 131.6 billion in 2025 (excluding oil), Africa accounted for 7.4% of that total—a relatively low share for a continent with such potential, which could reach USD 25 billion, as noted above.
Egypt maintained the same level of trade with Africa in 2024 and 2025 (USD 9.7 billion). This indicates that the 17% growth in exports and 5% growth in imports occurred outside Africa. It underscores that trade with the African continent has not yet improved and requires further work on roads and border crossings, maritime shipping lines, agreements, banking access, trade facilitation, and the removal of other barriers to Africa-bound trade.
Third: Egypt’s foreign trade with Sudan
Sudanese exports to Egypt declined sharply—by nearly half—from USD 505 million before the war to USD 277 million in 2025. The trade deficit vis-à-vis Egypt widened from USD 275 million before the war to USD 705 million in 2025, while Egypt maintained its export volumes to Sudan, which did not decline.
Total bilateral trade stood at around USD 1.5 billion in 2022 (pre-war), fell to USD 1.1 billion in 2024, and then rose slightly to USD 1.2 billion in 2025. This decline occurred at the expense of Sudanese exports to Egypt. The principal reason is that Sudan’s main exports—camels, cattle, and agricultural crops—are largely produced in areas affected by the current conflict.
Egyptian exports to Sudan represent 12.5% of Egypt’s exports to Africa and only 2% of Egypt’s total exports to the world.
Egyptian imports from Sudan account for 14.5% of Egypt’s total imports from Africa and just 0.3% of Egypt’s total global imports.
Egypt–Sudan foreign trade, which reached USD 1.25 billion in 2025, represents 0.9% of Egypt’s total foreign trade (less than 1%).
Hopefully, upcoming articles will analyse each export and import category between Egypt and Sudan in detail, with a view to identifying opportunities and addressing challenges.

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