That dollar amount specific to consumer-targeted exports represents 41.5% of the overall value of all US exported goods ($2.065 trillion) during 2024. That percentage lags the 41.8% for America’s consumer products exported one year earlier in 2023.
The total dollar amount for America’s top 100 exported consumer products grew by 1.6% year over year from 2023 to 2024. Over a 5-year time horizon, US consumer exports rose by 47.5% compared to 2020.
America’s overall shipments of all its exported products–encompassing raw materials, intermediate products as well as those classified as consumer goods–grew in value by 2.2% in 2024 compared to 2023 and expanded by 44.9% over the 5-year period starting in 2020.
The 5 most valuable consumer end-use goods shipped by the United States onto global markets during 2024 were exported refined petroleum oils, petroleum gases, cars, automobile parts or accessories, and computers including optical readers. Combined, those 5 leading exports amount to 15.7% of America’s total revenues collected from selling its exports on international markets, down from 16.3% for the prior year.
Among the top 100 consumer products exported by the United States, 54 generated more revenues year over year. The fastest increases belong to US exports of computer parts or accessories (up 70.6% from 2023), electric storage batteries (up 62.2%), computers including optical readers (up 31.2%), unrecorded sound media (up 25.2%), rice (up 21%), chocolate and miscellaneous cocoa preparations (up 18.9%), then alcoholic beverages (up 16%) including spirts and liqueurs.
Forty-six top US consumer exports declined year over year.
The severest decliners were US export sales of unmounted diamonds (down -26.2% from 2023), yachts, canoes and row boats (down -18.3%), trailers (down -17.9%), video console games and table games (down -17.1%), tractors (down -16.7%), then soya beans (down -12.3%).
Exported Consumer Products Defined
So, what are consumer products? They are final goods or end products that a business mainly creates for consumers to buy. For example, consumers often purchase refined petroleum oil at the gas station while exported crude oil is an intermediate good subject to further processing before being sold to end users.
Although there may be a few wealthy individual buyers, products like turbojets are excluded from the consumer products targeted by this study. That is because turbojets are usually purchased by corporations. In contrast, it is common for consumers to buy motorcycles.
Admittedly there are some grey areas. For example, business and government entities buy exported gold in addition to consumers. On the other hand, generally fewer consumers buy platinum exports.
Types of Consumer Products
This article focuses on 3 distinct consumer product types for the exports reviewed in the article.
Convenience Products are easy to access, non-durable, have relatively lower prices and therefore consumers frequently purchase them. Examples of convenience products are food, alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, and soap.
Shopping Products are not as easily available as convenience products, involve more time to make a buying decision, are durable and are not bought as often as most convenience products. A great example of a shopping product is a mobile phone where buying the wrong model is a much more expensive mistake than buying a stale loaf of bread.
Specialty Products describe another consumer product type. This grey area includes infrequently purchased, expensive, durable and sometimes rare items. Consumers may consider the product’s brand image when making their purchase decisions. Some examples of speciality products are gold, silver, diamonds, jewelry, and branded refrigerators and dishwashers.
US Top 100 Most Valuable Consumer Exports
The searchable international sales database below showcases America’s 100 highest value exported consumer products in descending order. Items were selected at the four-digit Harmonized System tariff classification code level.
The table’s fifth column identifies each entry’s consumer product type.
The most popular product types are shopping products (SP) via 39 entries led by cars, automobile parts or accessories, phone devices including smartphones, computers, trucks then orthopedic appliances.
Second place thanks to convenience products (CP) led by processed petroleum oils, petroleum gas, medications, soya beans, then corn.
In third place via 24 entries is the speciality products (SY) category. Examples of major speciality products are American exports of gold, unmounted diamonds and jewelry.
Durable consumer products (D) are goods like cars, refrigerators and furniture that last a relatively long time. Consumers can put durable products to use again and again.
Non-durable consumer products (ND) are goods that are not re-used once consumed. Alcoholic beverages and bananas are examples of non-durable goods.
Based on the product types identified in the above table, 63 of America’s highest-value consumer exported products are durable while 37 are classified as non-durable.
You can also peruse the greatest increases or decreases in product values from 2023 to 2024. To do so, click on the heading of the fourth column.
Fastest-Growing US Consumer Exports
Listed below are the top 10 consumer products shipped by the United States that benefited from the highest percentage increases in global sales from 2023 to 2024.
- Computer parts, accessories: Up 70.6% ($24 billion)
- Electric storage batteries: Up 62.2% ($8.8 billion)
- Computers including optical readers: Up 31.2% ($40.1 billion)
- Unrecorded sound media: Up 25.2% ($8.9 billion)
- Rice: Up 21% ($2.4 billion)
- Chocolate, other cocoa preparations: Up 18.9% ($2.1 billion)
- Alcohol (including spirits, liqueurs): Up 16% ($2.9 billion)
- Other meats (prepared/preserved): Up 15.8% ($1.42 billion)
- Dried shelled vegetables: Up 15.1% (US$1.4 billion)
- Gold (unwrought): Up 14% ($29.7 billion)
Five of the above items are non-durable goods that consumers use or consumer one time. These are rice, chocolate and other cocoa preparations, alcoholic beverages, prepared or preserved miscellaneous meat, then dried shelled vegetables.
In contrast, 3 goods (computer parts or accessories, computers and unrecorded sound media) are considered durable shopping products.
Another 2 growth commodities (electric storage batteries and unwrought gold) are speciality products.
Severest-Declining US Consumer Exports
Among the top 100 US exports, America’s spending on the following 10 items resulted in the strongest declines from 2023 to 2024.
- Diamonds (unmounted/unset): Down -26.2% (US$12.4 billion)
- Yachts, canoes, row boats: Down -18.3% ($2 billion)
- Trailers: Down -17.9% ($4.1 billion)
- Video console games, table games: Down -17.1% ($3.1 billion)
- Tractors: Down -16.7% ($6.6 billion)
- Soya beans: Down -12.3% ($24.6 billion)
- Hot-rolled iron/non-alloy steel items: Down -12.1% ($1.9 billion)
- Concentrated/sweetened milk: Down -11.7% ($2.2 billion)
- Medication mixes not in dosage: Down -10.8% ($1.4 billion)
- Hand-drawn paintings, drawings: Down -10.5% ($7.6 billion)
Unmounted diamonds and hand-drawn paintings or drawings are the two speciality products.
Three among the remaining US export decliners are consumer products used one time only. Specifically these are exported soya beans, concentrated or sweetened milk, and medication mixes in dosage.
The other 5 are classified as shopping products headlined by yachts, canoes and row boats ahead of trailers, video console or table games, tractors, then items made from hot-rolled iron or non-alloy steel.
Key Customers for US Exports by Country
This analysis reveals competitive buyers that provide major demand for America’s top 5 consumer export products.
The biggest US exported consumer product by value are refined petroleum oils. America’s 4 other leading consumer exports are petroleum gases, cars, automotive parts or accessories, and computers including optical readers.
Here are the main international customers for
America’s exported refined petroleum oils: Mexico (28.6% of total), Canada (10.1%), Netherlands (5.1%), Chile (4.8%), United Kingdom (3.4%), Brazil (3.3%), Colombia (3.3%), Ecuador (3.3%), Peru (also 3.3%), and Panama (3.2%).
America’s exported petroleum gases: Japan (15% of total), Mexico (10.7%), mainland China (10%), Netherlands (7%), South Korea (6.2%), France (4.5%), Germany (3.1%), United Kingdom (also 3.1%), Türkiye (2.9%), and Spain (2.9%).
America’s exported cars: Canada (26.2% of total), Germany (13.4%), mainland China (8.3%), Mexico (7.8%), United Arab Emirates (6.9%), South Korea (3.6%), Saudi Arabia (3%), Belgium (2.8%), Australia (2.1%), and Georgia (2%).
America’s exported automotive parts or accessories: Mexico (44.4% of total), Canada (31.4%), mainland China (2.9%), Australia (2.2%), Germany (1.9%), Thailand (1.4%), Brazil (1.4%), South Africa (1.2%), Japan (0.9%), and India (also 0.9%).
America’s exported computers including optical readers: Canada (15.3% of total), Mexico (12%), Netherlands (8.7%), Japan (5.6%), Malaysia (5.1%), Singapore (4.3%), United Arab Emirates (4.2%), Australia (3.6%), United Kingdom (also 3.6%), and Taiwan (3.5%).
Based on the above lists, Mexico and Canada confirm their status as America’s number one or two customers. This assertion is based on the fact that these trade partners are the leading international purchasers for 4 of the 5 most valuable consumer products exported from the United States of America. The only anomaly is Japan for US exports of petroleum gases.
See also United States Top 10 Imports, United States Top 10 Exports, Top United States Trade Balances and America’s Top 20 Export States and United States Top 10 Major Export Companies
Research Sources:
Independent insights and analysis presented in this article were based on researched facts and statistics sourced from the following educational portals.
BoyceWire, Consumer Goods Definition. Accessed on April 8, 2025
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook: United States Economy. Accessed on April 8, 2025
Imported Consumer Products, United States Top 100 Imported Consumer Products. Accessed on April 8, 2025
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on April 8, 2025
Investopedia, Consumer Goods, Consumer Staples Definition, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). Accessed on April 8, 2025
Trading Economics, United States Consumer Spending. Accessed on April 8, 2025
Wikipedia, List of largest consumer markets. Accessed on April 8, 2025