Exports to Suriname at record level

© CBS

Erratum:

This report originally included an incorrect figure in the first graph concerning exports in the first half of 2022 (130.8 million euros instead of 112.1 million euros). This has now been corrected, and the title has also been changed to reflect this, from “… almost at record level” to “at record level”.
Goods exports from the Netherlands to Suriname were up in the first half of 2025 and at the highest level ever recorded. The figures were only surpassed by the first half of 2022, when goods exports by value were slightly higher. Exports of machinery and equipment were higher, in particular. The Netherlands is the second most important supplier of goods to Suriname after the US and China. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of newly released figures.

In the first half of 2025, the total value of goods exported from the Netherlands to Suriname was 128.4 million euros. That was 19 percent (20.8 million euros) higher than the previous year. Suriname's share of the Netherlands' total goods exports to South America is now at its highest level since 2020, and Suriname is the sixth most important market in South America for goods exports from the Netherlands. The rise in export value is due to higher export volume.

Exports of machinery and transport equipment up by 11 million euros

Half of the 20.8 million increase in export value in the first half of 2025 was due to exports of machinery and transport equipment. This chiefly involves tankers, pumps for liquids and equipment and machinery for civil engineering. This brings the export value of machinery and transport equipment to 45.1 million euros - the highest since 2015. In addition, one-fifth of the increase is attributable to food products and live animals. In this category, too, the export value is now at a record high of 33.5 million euros.

 

Suriname’s goods imports from China increased sharply in 2024

In 2024, 11.7 percent of Suriname’s goods imports came from the Netherlands. That percentage was down for the third year in a row. By contrast, China’s share of imports into Suriname was higher for the fourth year in a row. China knocked the Netherlands’ off its position as the second most important supplier of goods to Suriname in 2024.

Trinidad and Tobago and the US also saw their share in goods exports into Suriname decline. Of the five leading exporters of goods to Suriname, China was the only one that saw an increase in its share of goods imports. Outside the top five, the import share of St Lucia also increased relative to 2023 (from 0.61 to 2.39 percent) as did that of Indonesia (from 0.23 to 1.70 percent).

Sources