Ireland exported €1.7 billion to Africa in 2019 and imported €457 million. The largest export market in Africa was South Africa, with exports of €413 million, followed by Nigeria (€278 million) and Egypt (€236 million). The largest import markets are Guinea, South Africa and Egypt, together comprising €305 million, or two thirds of all imports from Africa.

There was €130 million of aluminium ores imported from Guinea in 2019, €23 million of rock-drilling equipment imported from South Africa, and €8 million of electrical conductors imported from Egypt. There was €16 million of tea imported from Kenya. These are the largest value of products imported from these countries in 2019.

In 2019, we exported €25 million of poultry and offal, and €17 million of whiskey to South Africa. There was €88 million of malt for brewing, €38 million of milk and 31,000 tonnes of fish exported to Nigeria in 2019. There were 13,000 tonnes of cheese exported to Algeria, while we exported €49 million of brewing malt exported to Senegal, and €22 million to Ghana.

Ireland’s imports from Oceania in 2019 were valued at €170 million, almost all of which came from Australia and New Zealand. The largest product imported was wine, of which there was 8.8 million litres imported from Australia, at a value of €30 million, and 5 million litres from New Zealand, equating to €24 million.

Ireland imported 633,000 tonnes of animal feed from South America in 2019, of which 622,000 tonnes came from Argentina. There were 19.2 million litres of wine imported from South America, of which 16.9 million came from Chile and 2.8 million litres came from Argentina.  The total value of wine imports from South America in 2019 was €58 million.

We also imported 10,500 tonnes of apples, 2,600 tonnes of grapes, 3,600 tonnes of mandarin oranges and 3,700 tonnes of coffee from South America in 2019. There were 145,000 tonnes of coal imported from Colombia in 2019, at a value of €22.8 million.  This has fallen from over 2 million tonnes in 2015.