Africa’s merchandise exports to China in 2025

  • Africa exported a record $86.2bn worth of goods to China in 2025.
  • China received about 12.5% of Africa’s total merchandise exports.
  • Annual exports remained below $10bn until 2004, before accelerating sharply.
  • Export values have remained relatively high since 2021 despite earlier downturns.
  • The trade relationship remains heavily commodity-led, with limited manufactured exports.

Africa exported $86.2bn worth of goods to China in 2025, the highest level in the 1995–2025 series. That was about 12.5% of the continent’s total merchandise exports to the world.

Two decades earlier, the flow was still small. Africa’s exports to China stayed below $10bn until 2004, then climbed to $48.7bn by 2008 and moved into a much higher range in the 2010s.
It has not stayed there smoothly. The value dropped sharply in the mid-2010s, fell again in 2020, and then settled into a high band from 2021.

But the shape of the relationship has barely changed: Africa still mostly sells China what comes out of the ground, not what comes out of factories.

Source:

UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Period:

1995-2025
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