Trade and ports
The khat trade: how much Somalia spends on imported khat
Somalia imported about $450 million of khat in 2025, more than the $404 million the federal government raised in domestic revenue that year, according to a National Economic Council report. Most comes by air from Kenya (miraa), the rest from Ethiopia. Khat is also one of the biggest single sources of customs duty.
The short version
Khat (qaad or jaad) is a leaf that is chewed as a mild stimulant. Almost all of it is grown in Kenya and Ethiopia and flown or driven into Somalia fresh each day. It is one of the country's largest imports and one of the government's largest single sources of customs duty.
How much Somalia spends
- 2025: $450.4 million of khat imports, according to the National Economic Council's State of the Economy Report 2026, which uses Central Bank data. That is more than the $404.3 million of federal domestic revenue in 2025, and almost half of the $922.9 million earned from livestock exports (Dawan Africa, 27 October 2026).
- Food was the largest import, at $2.4 billion (same source). See Trade: exports and imports.
Where it comes from
- Kenya (miraa): Kenya's agriculture minister told parliament in December 2025 that Kenya sends 13 to 17 tonnes of miraa to Somalia every day. Somalia takes 80 to 90 percent of Kenya's miraa trade, and more than 17 million kilograms had been sent since the market reopened in July 2022 (Dawan Africa).
- Ethiopia (hareeri): Ethiopia's official khat exports to Somalia fell to 2,580 tonnes in the first quarter of its 2025/26 financial year, down 35 percent on a year earlier (same source). In 2022 Somalia accounted for close to 80 percent of Ethiopia's khat export earnings (Addis Fortune, 17 July 2022).
The taxes it pays
- In 2019 khat taxes at Mogadishu airport raised $16.6 million, about 5 percent of federal revenue (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Risk Bulletin 9, 2020).
- In Somaliland, khat taxes made up roughly 30 percent of government revenue, about $35 million a year (same source).
- Mogadishu's city government also charges its own excise on the khat trade (Somali Public Agenda, 2025). See Mogadishu's economy.
Bans and price jumps
2020. On 18 March 2020 the federal government stopped international flights and halted khat imports because of COVID-19. Before the ban about 50 tonnes of miraa reached Mogadishu daily, worth roughly $1 million at retail. Miraa that sold for $20 to $25 a kilo jumped to $300 a kilo in early April, then settled at $80 to $120 by June. Smuggling grew by road through Beledweyne, by sea to Kismayo and Mogadishu, and on small aircraft. Kenyan-registered aircraft carrying COVID-19 supplies were found with hidden khat at least three times. On 26 May 2020 a Silverstone Air Services flight delivered khat to Jowhar; the convoy carrying it onward hit a roadside bomb and nine soldiers were killed. Silverstone and Buff Air Services had their licences suspended on 1 June 2020 (Global Initiative, 2020). Somaliland and Puntland lifted their bans before Eid in May 2020 (Global Initiative, 2020).
Trade with Kenya. Before the pause, Kenya sent close to 55,000 tonnes a year to Somalia, worth about $50 million at export prices. No Kenyan shipments reached Somalia from 2020 until a deal agreed during the President's visit to Kenya in 2022. In Ethiopia in 2022, at least 830 khat exporters lost their licences over suspected over-invoicing, and a plan to double the minimum export price for khat sent to Somalia to $10 a kilo was reversed back to $5 (Addis Fortune, 2022). In 2024 Somalia halted Ethiopian imports during tensions between the two countries (Dawan Africa).
Who chews
In the 2022 national household survey, 2.5 percent of adults said they chew khat: 5.3 percent of men and almost no women (Somali National Bureau of Statistics, SIHBS 2022, Table 4.8). For what khat does to health and daily life, see Khat (qaad) in Somalia.
Sources disagree
- Value of imports. The $450.4 million figure for 2025 is far above an estimate by the writer Mohamed Mukhtar Ibrahim of $131 million to $171 million a year. He took Kenya's 13 to 17 tonnes a day at $28 a kilo on arrival in Mogadishu; at the retail price of $40 a kilo the total is $187 million to $245 million (WardheerNews, 12 January 2026). His estimate leaves out Ethiopian khat. The $450.4 million figure is taken from press reports of the National Economic Council report (Dawan Africa).
Sources
- Dawan Africa, 27 October 2026 · dawan.africa
- Addis Fortune, 17 July 2022 · addisfortune.news
- Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Risk Bulletin 9, 2020 · riskbulletins.globalinitiative.net
- Somali Public Agenda, 2025 · somalipublicagenda.org
- Somali National Bureau of Statistics, SIHBS 2022 · nbs.gov.so
- WardheerNews, 12 January 2026 · wardheernews.com
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Where this matters
- Muqdisho (Mogadishu) and BanaadirMogadishu (Muqdisho) is Somalia's capital and makes up the Banadir region, with about 2.97 million people in 20 districts.
- Hargeysa (Hargeisa) and Woqooyi GalbeedWoqooyi Galbeed is the north-western region that holds Hargeisa (Hargeysa) and the port of Berbera, with about 1 to 1.45 million people.
- Beledweyne (Belet Weyne) and HiiraanHiiraan is a region of Hirshabelle State on the Shabelle river, with Beledweyne as its capital and about 505,000 to 598,000 people.
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