Just 30 countries account for more than 80 per cent of the world’s agricultural exports. Here are the top five and their biggest-selling exports
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Every 60 seconds, the world consumes almost five million kilograms of food – equivalent in volume to 20 million Big Macs. In just under one minute and 30 seconds, agriculture uses 6,812 gigajoules of energy, 412 tonnes of fertilisers and more than six million tonnes of water around the world.
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Most of that food will never cross a border. The bulk of the world’s crops, meat, dairy and fish are consumed in the countries where they are produced, or are used domestically as animal feed, seed, ingredients or industrial raw materials.
But the share that does enter international trade has become increasingly important. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the amount of food traded globally more than doubled in dietary-energy terms between 2000 and 2021, reaching almost 5,000 trillion kilocalories a year, while the value of food and agricultural trade rose fivefold to around US$1.9 trillion in 2022.
In 2023, only one-fifth of the world’s cereal production was exported, but the traded share was far higher for some globally important foods, including vegetable oils, fish and seafood, sugar and pulses.
But which nations are powering the food production feeding the globe? The answer is, not many: just 30 countries account for more than 80 per cent of the world’s agricultural exports. Below, we reveal the top five, in reverse order, according to how much their agricultural exports were worth in 2024:
5) Mexico – $49.9billion
In Mexico, top exports include beer, avocados, berries, tomatoes and tequila. It is the world’s leading exporter of beer – in the first five months of 2024 alone, beer, tequila and mezcal generated export revenue of $4.57billion.
Around 80 per cent of the nation’s agricultural exports go to the US, making it Mexico’s most important export market. So booming is the nation’s agricultural export sector that it earns Mexico more foreign currency than tourism, and in some years, even oil exports.
4) Canada – $66.3billion
Canada’s agricultural system employed 2.3 million people in the country in 2024, providing one in nine jobs. In total, the sector generated around seven per cent – $149.2billion – of Canada’s GDP.
Its largest food export is baked goods, and 95 per cent of these exports go to the US as they are perishable products. Other major exports include non-durum wheat, canola seed, canola oil and soya beans.
The US is also the primary destination for Canada’s hog, beef and red meat exports.
3) China – $74.8billion
China ranks third, with five per cent of the world’s agricultural exports. Leading exports for China include corn, soybeans, rice, pork products, coarse grain, wheat and tree nuts. Top markets for Chinese corn include Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Vietnam.
As well as this, the nation exports a range of products such as oils, seasonings and sauces for Chinese cooking to consumers around the globe.
2) Brazil – $144.4billion
Across the years, Brazil has transformed its agricultural sector from being an exporter of primarily tropical products (such as coffee, sugar and cacao) to supplying a range of agricultural exports from orange juice to cotton and ethanol in the 21st century.
Today, soybeans and soybean products, coffee, sugar, orange juice and meat remain the most important food and drink export products from the country.
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee, and one-third of the world’s oranges are grown in the country, more than twice the amount produced in the US (the second-largest supplier).
1) US – $181.3billion
At number one is the US, which produces 12.1 per cent of all agricultural exports. On average, the nation exports around 20 per cent of its agricultural production each year.
The country’s biggest food export is soybeans: they accounted for 14 per cent of all agricultural exports in 2024, with a market value of $24.6billion. Around half of all American soybeans are exported to China, with the next largest markets being Mexico, Japan and Colombia.
Other major agricultural exports include corn (7.9 per cent of all agricultural exports), beef and beef products (5.9 per cent), tree nuts (5.6 per cent), pork and pork products (4.9 per cent), dairy products (4.7 per cent), soybean meal (3.6 per cent) and wheat (3.3 per cent).
In 2024, Mexico bought the most agricultural exports from the US, with Canada as the second-largest market.
The UK sits at number 15, with a total of $30.9billion agricultural exports in 2024, representing 2.1 per cent of the global share. The food and drink sector is the country’s biggest manufacturing sector, with whisky, salmon, chocolate, cheese, gin, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, wines, beef and pork comprising the nation’s biggest-selling exports.
Scottish whisky is consistently the UK’s highest-value export, with established markets particularly in the US and Japan.
