That calculated dollar amount results from a -43.2% drop from five years earlier in 2019 when Lebanese exports were worth $3.73 billion.
Year over year, the value of overall exports from Lebanon plunged -39.3% compared to $3.49 billion starting from 2022.
Lebanon’s top 5 most valuable exports are iron or steel scrap, unwrought gold, jewelry, copper waste and scrap, then natural calcium phosphates. That subset of leading products represent almost a third (30.3%) of the total revenues for all Lebanese exported goods in 2023.
Lebanon’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data from 2022 shows that 66.8% of products exported from Lebanon was bought by importers in: United Arab Emirates (21.4% of the Lebanese total), Syrian Arab Republic (10.2%), Egypt (4.8%), Iraq (4.6%), Switzerland (4.5%), Qatar (4.2%), Türkiye (3.7%), South Korea (3%), United States of America (2.9%), Jordan (2.7%), Kuwait (2.5%) and Greece (2.3%).
From a continental perspective, 57.8% of Lebanon’s exports by value was delivered to Asian countries while 17.8% was sold to importers in Europe. Lebanon shipped another 17.9% worth of goods to Africa.
Smaller percentages went to buyers in North America (3.9%), Latin America(2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.6%) led by Australia and New Zealand.
Given Lebanon’s population of 5.4 million people, its total $2.12 billion in 2023 exports translates to roughly $400 for every resident in the Middle Eastern nation. That dollar average exceeds the per-capita $700 for 2022.
Lebanon’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Lebanese global shipments during 2023. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Lebanon.
- Gems, precious metals: US$313 million (14.8% of total exports)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $174.6 million (8.2%)
- Iron, steel: $174.5 million (8.2%)
- Fruits, nuts: $126.3 million (6%)
- Copper: $106.7 million (5%)
- Vegetable/fruit/nut preparations: $95.7 million (4.5%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $94.2 million (4.4%)
- Machinery including computers: $68 million (3.2%)
- Lead: $67.8 million (3.2%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $60.1 million (2.8%)
Lebanon’s top 10 exports generated over three-fifths (60.4%) of the overall value of its global shipments.
Salt, sulphur, stone and cement represents the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 5,818% from 2022 to 2023.
In second place for improving export sales was lead via a 20.8% advance.
Lebanon’s shipments of the metals iron and steel posted a 9% gain.
The leading decliner among Lebanon’s top 10 export categories was plastics both as materials including items made from plastic, recording a -84.4% year-over-year drop.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, iron or steel scrap (8% of Lebanon’s global total) represent the most valuable Lebanese export product for 2023. In second place were unwrought gold (7.5%) trailed by jewelry (5.7%), copper waste or scrap (4.7%), natural calcium phosphates (4.3%), electric generating sets or converters (4.2%), fresh apples and pears (3.6%), unwrought lead (3.2%), miscellaneous preserved fruits (2.1%), then phosphoric or polyphosphoric (2%).
Products Responsible for Lebanon’s Best Trade Surpluses
Itemized below are categories of Lebanese exported products that generated positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Lead: US$60.8 million (Up by 9% since 2022)
- Fruits, nuts: $41.6 million (Down by -56.3%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $40.6 million (Reversing a -$121.9 million deficit)
- Vegetable/fruit/nut preparations: $36.3 million (Down by -12%)
- Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $33 million (Up by 11871%)
- Copper: $31.3 million (Down by -41.1%)
- Inorganic chemicals: $14 million (Down by -3.7%)
- Fertilizers: $13.7 million (Down by -81.9%)
- Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $1.8 million (Down by -5.1%)
- Zinc: $202,000 (Reversing a -$52,000 deficit)
Lebanon has highly positive net exports in the international trade of lead. In turn, these cashflows indicate Lebanon’s strong competitive advantages under the lead product category.
Products Causing Lebanon’s Largest Trade Deficits
Lebanon incurred an overall -US$13.1 billion product trade deficit for 2023. That deficit reflects a -16% reduction from -$15.6 billion in red ink one year earlier in 2022.
Below are exports from Lebanon that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Lebanon’s goods trail Lebanese importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$3.5 billion (Down by -36.5% since 2022)
- Gems, precious metals: -$1.5 billion (Up by 63.5%)
- Vehicles: -$927.3 million (Down by -49.3%)
- Machinery including computers: -$775.6 million (Up by 19.3%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$614.0 million (Down by -58.0%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$402.7 million (Down by -20.7%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$327.5 million (Up by 188.7%)
- Cereals: -$241.4 million (Down by -46.2%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$199.1 million (Up by 15.4%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$193.1 million (Up by 27.7%)
Lebanon has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the mineral fuels including oil category, notably for refined petroleum oils, petroleum gases and petroleum coke.
Lebanese Export Companies
Two regional banks headquartered in Lebanon rank among Forbes Global 2000, namely Bank Audi and Blom Bank.
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Lebanon. Selected examples are shown below.
- Bonjus (juice)
- Château Musar (winery)
- IXSIR wine (winery)
- Massaya (winery, distillery)
- Middle East Airlines (airliner)
- Tabbah (jewelry)
In macroeconomic terms, Lebanon’s total exported goods represent 2.5% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2023 ($85 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 2.5% ratio for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2023 compares to an estimated 5.1% for 2022. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Lebanon’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe and estimated amounts.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Lebanon’s unemployment rate averaged 11.56% for 2023, down from 11.6% one year earlier in 2022 according to Statista.
Lebanon’s capital city is Beirut, nicknamed “Paris of the East”.
See also Grapes Exports by Country, Gold Exports by Country Plus Average Prices, Diamond Exports by Country and UAE’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook report on Middle East: Lebanon. Accessed on September 19, 2024
FlagPictures.org, Flag of Lebanon. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Forbes 2023 Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Foreign Trade , United States Census Bureau. Accessed on September 19, 2024
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on September 19, 2024
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Wikipedia, Lebanon. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Lebanon. Accessed on September 19, 2024
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on September 19, 2024