By Eng. Monjed Ibrahim Youssef
Economic Expert in Egypt–Sudan Trade Relations
Egypt’s foreign trade performance in 2025 reflects a cautiously improving economic trajectory following several difficult years marked by global shocks, currency pressures and regional instability. Newly released data from Egypt’s General Organisation for Export and Import Control and the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) shows solid export growth, a narrowing trade deficit and encouraging diversification across key sectors.
However, beneath this positive headline performance lie persistent structural weaknesses—most notably Egypt’s underdeveloped trade integration with Africa and the severe disruption of bilateral trade with Sudan following the outbreak of conflict.
Egypt’s Global Trade: Exports Rise, Deficit Narrows
In 2025, Egypt’s non-oil exports reached USD 48.6 billion, an increase of USD 7 billion, representing 17 percent growth compared with USD 41.5 billion in 2024. Imports (non-oil) rose more modestly to USD 83 billion, up USD 3.7 billion or 5 percent year-on-year.
As a result, Egypt’s total foreign trade volume (exports plus imports) increased to USD 131.6 billion, up from USD 120.9 billion in 2024—an 8 percent expansion. This improvement reflects the Egyptian economy’s growing resilience and its capacity to stabilise after years of fiscal tightening and external shocks.
Crucially, stronger export growth relative to imports helped narrow Egypt’s trade deficit to USD 34.4 billion, down from USD 37.8 billion in 2024—an improvement of 9 percent. This signals early success in the government’s strategy to rebalance external trade and strengthen foreign currency inflows.
Export Composition Highlights Industrial and Agricultural Strength
Egypt’s export growth in 2025 was broad-based, with strong performance across multiple commodity groups. The export structure reveals a growing industrial base alongside a resilient agri-food sector:
- 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%
The steady contribution of agriculture and food industries, accounting for nearly 24 percent of total exports, underscores Egypt’s continued reliance on agri-value chains for export earnings. At the current growth trajectory, Egypt’s exports could exceed USD 60 billion in 2026, provided macroeconomic stability is maintained and logistics bottlenecks are addressed.
Africa: Strategic Market, Limited Realisation
Despite Africa’s strategic importance, Egypt’s trade with the continent remains significantly below potential.
In 2025, Egyptian exports to Africa totalled USD 7.8 billion, while imports stood at USD 1.9 billion, generating a trade surplus of USD 5.9 billion in Egypt’s favour. Total Egypt–Africa trade amounted to USD 9.7 billion, unchanged from 2024.
When measured against Egypt’s total foreign trade of USD 131.6 billion, Africa accounted for just 7.4 percent—a strikingly low share for a continent with deep geographic, cultural and economic ties to Egypt. Conservative estimates suggest Egypt’s trade with Africa could reach USD 25 billion annually if structural constraints were addressed.
The stagnation in Africa-bound trade indicates that Egypt’s impressive export growth in 2025 occurred largely outside the African continent, highlighting persistent challenges such as:
- Weak road and border infrastructure
- Limited maritime shipping routes
- Inadequate banking and trade finance access
- Fragmented trade facilitation systems
- Slow implementation of AfCFTA mechanisms
Without targeted investment in logistics corridors, ports, border posts and trade finance, Africa will remain an underutilised market for Egyptian agricultural and industrial exports.
Sudan: Conflict Reshapes Bilateral Trade
Trade relations with Sudan—a historically important partner—were severely disrupted by the ongoing conflict.
Sudanese exports to Egypt fell by nearly 50 percent, declining from USD 505 million pre-war to USD 277 million in 2025. As a result, Sudan’s trade deficit with Egypt widened sharply, increasing from USD 275 million to USD 705 million.
Total bilateral trade declined from USD 1.5 billion in 2022 to USD 1.1 billion in 2024, before recovering slightly to USD 1.2 billion in 2025. This modest recovery masks a deeper imbalance, driven by the collapse of Sudanese exports rather than increased trade activity.
Sudan’s principal exports—livestock, camels, cattle and agricultural crops—are largely produced in regions directly affected by conflict, severely constraining supply chains.
In 2025:
- Egyptian exports to Sudan accounted for 12.5% of Egypt’s exports to Africa and 2% of global exports
- Egyptian imports from Sudan represented 14.5% of imports from Africa, but only 0.3% of total global imports
- Egypt–Sudan trade represented less than 1% of Egypt’s total foreign trade
Outlook: Opportunities Amid Structural Constraints
Egypt’s 2025 trade performance demonstrates solid recovery potential, export diversification and improving external balances. Yet Africa—particularly Sudan—remains a missed opportunity rather than a growth engine.
Unlocking Africa’s potential will require coordinated investment in infrastructure, logistics, banking access and AfCFTA implementation, alongside political stability in key partner countries.
Future analysis should focus on commodity-level trade flows between Egypt and Sudan, identifying specific agricultural and livestock value chains that could be rebuilt once conditions stabilise. Done correctly, Egypt’s trade strategy could evolve from resilience toward regional leadership in African agri-trade and industrial exports.