Trade and ports
Sesame and bananas: Somalia's crop exports
Sesame is now Somalia's biggest export crop by value, grown mostly along the Shabelle and Juba rivers. Bananas were the country's main crop export before 1991: at the peak they employed over 120,000 people and earned about $90 million a year. Exports stopped in the war and restarted in small shipments to the Gulf in 2014 and 2019.
The numbers
In its export strategy for 2025 to 2030, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry puts farm exports at about $63 million in 2023, about 7 percent of all goods exports. That figure covers sesame, bananas, citrus fruit, frankincense and myrrh (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, National Export Development and Promotion Strategy, 2026). The Central Bank reported that sales of crops rose in 2025 (see Trade: exports and imports).
Sesame
- The leading export crop. The same strategy calls sesame "Somalia's leading export crop by value". It says Somali sesame sells for its high oil content and low use of chemicals, to buyers in China, the Middle East and Europe, and that two crops a year are possible (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026).
- The farms. A study in the Ministry of Agriculture's January 2025 report counted 3,098 smallholder sesame farmers in Bal'ad district, Middle Shabelle. It names the farmer cooperatives Arif, Ali Sharaf, Moumin Group and 19 Mars, and says sesame from there goes to Dubai and other countries. Of the farmers surveyed, 57 percent sold to processors, 21 percent to hotels, 14 percent to schools or research bodies and 9 percent to other farmers (Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Country Report on Agriculture, January 2025).
- What holds output down. The same report lists little fertiliser, irrigation or pest control (same source).
Bananas: the history
| Period | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1920s | Italian colonial plantations began in the Juba and Shabelle valleys | SAIS Perspectives, Wyatt Constantine, 17 May 2021 |
| 1935 | A state monopoly, Regia azienda monopolio banane, shipped bananas to Italy in refrigerated boats | SAIS Perspectives, 2021 |
| After 1969 | Plantations were nationalised under the National Banana Board | SAIS Perspectives, 2021 |
| Peak years | Up to 200,000 tonnes a year, over 120,000 jobs and about $90 million in revenue | Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, June 2024 |
| 1980s | The Italian firm De Nadai worked with the Somali state, and output rose again | SAIS Perspectives, 2021 |
| 1990 | Bananas earned about 30 percent of export earnings | SAIS Perspectives, citing Webersik 2005 |
| Late 1990s | Dole arrived in southern Somalia, and the local partners of Dole and De Nadai fought over the trade, the "banana wars". The El Niño floods of 1997 and 1998 destroyed most plantations and canals | SAIS Perspectives, 2021 |
| July 2014 | The largest shipment in a decade left Mogadishu port for Kuwait and the UAE, from Bal'ad, Afgoye, Awdheegle and Janaale | Goobjoog, 10 July 2014 |
| November 2019 | Two containers went to Saudi Arabia, under a project with the USAID-funded GEEL programme | FreshPlaza, 29 November 2019 |
Under the colonial plantations, girls aged 8 to 15 weeded and harvested for about 40 US cents a day, and about three-quarters of export earnings went abroad, according to a 1993 study cited by SAIS Perspectives (SAIS Perspectives, citing Samatar 1993).
Bananas today
- Imports beat exports. In 2024 Somalia imported $2.84 million of bananas from Ethiopia and Kenya, most from Ethiopia, according to UN Comtrade data reported by FreshPlaza (FreshPlaza, 23 July 2026).
- Janaale in Lower Shabelle once had 20,000 hectares of bananas. Growers there and in Buulo Mareer pay at road checkpoints (isbaaro) and pay al-Shabaab, and these costs push up their prices (same source).
- New plants. The Ministry of Agriculture backs tissue-culture plantlets, such as those from the Filsan company in Afgoye, and expects better planting material to raise yields by at least 25 percent (Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, June 2024).
Citrus
Sun-dried lemons became one of Somalia's few lasting fruit exports after the banana trade fell, and farmers in Afgooye and Luuq have replanted lemons (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026).
Sources disagree
- How much sesame is exported. The export strategy says Somalia exports about 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of sesame a year (Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2026). The trade-data site Selina Wamucii gives 28,672 tonnes worth $43 million for 2019 (Selina Wamucii).
- The banana peak. The Ministry of Agriculture gives about $90 million at the peak, and dates the fast growth to the early 1970s (MoAI, June 2024). SAIS Perspectives says output fell from about 1973 and rose again in the 1980s (SAIS Perspectives, 2021). The export strategy says exports peaked at over $90 million in the 1980s (MoCI, 2026).
Sources
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry, National Export Development and Promotion Strategy, 2026 · moci.gov.so
- Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Country Report on Agriculture, January 2025 · moa.gov.so
- SAIS Perspectives, Wyatt Constantine, 17 May 2021 · saisperspectives.com
- Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, June 2024 · moa.gov.so
- Goobjoog, 10 July 2014 · en.goobjoog.com
- FreshPlaza, 29 November 2019 · freshplaza.com
- FreshPlaza, 23 July 2026 · freshplaza.com
- Selina Wamucii · selinawamucii.com
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Where this matters
- Jowhar (Johar) and Middle ShabelleMiddle Shabelle is the farming region along the Shabelle river north of Mogadishu, with Jowhar as its capital and about 1 to 1.26 million people.
- Bu'aale (Buale) and Middle JubaMiddle Juba is a farming region on the Juba river in the south, with about 447,000 people.
- Kismaayo (Kismayo) and Lower JubaLower Juba is the far southern region on the border with Kenya, with the port city of Kismayo (Kismaayo) as its capital and about 1.2 million people.
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