The Federal Authority for Competitiveness and Statistics revealed that 10 commodities topped the UAE's non-oil exports with a value of 485.2 billion dirhams in 2018, and accounted for 76.1% of the total non-oil exports, while the rest of the non-oil commodities exported accounted for 23.9%, pointing out that pearl exports, Precious metals, precious stones and their products came first with a total value of AED 168.8 billion.
The total value of UAE's non-oil exports, which include non-oil exports and re-exported goods, amounted to AED 637.6 billion in 2018, an increase of AED 56.2 billion compared to 2017, the authority said in a recent report.
Export arrangement
According to the report, exports of pearls, precious metals and precious stones and their products came first with a total of 168.8 billion dirhams, equivalent to 26.4% of the total non-oil exports of the country, followed by electrical machinery, spare parts and sound recorders with a value of 100.3 billion dirhams, or 15.7% of the total exports. Non-oil exports, then nuclear reactors, boilers and machinery parts totaling 65 billion dirhams.
Machinery, excluding railways or trams, and spare parts came fourth with AED 45 billion, followed by aluminum and its products with AED 25 billion, followed by plastics and materials worth AED 20.1 billion. Tobacco and its manufactured alternatives came seventh, followed by mineral fuels, oils, lubricants and bitumenes, and aircraft and spacecraft ninth, worth AED 16 billion each. Steel and metal products ranked 10th with a value of AED 13 billion.
Saudi exports
Saudi Arabia topped the list of countries in the world as the largest trading partner of the UAE in the field of non-oil exports in 2018, with the total value of UAE exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to 79.5 billion dirhams, 12.5% of the total non-oil exports of the country, followed by India in second place with 47.1 Billion dirhams, then Iraq worth 41.5 billion dirhams.
The contribution of the three countries accounted for 26.4% of the total non-oil export activities of the country, while the rest of the world accounted for the remaining 73.6%.
State Trade
The total non-oil trade of the country in 2018, about one trillion and 536 billion dirhams, imports accounted for 58.5% of the total volume of non-oil trade, compared to 28.1% for re-export activities, and 13.4% for non-oil exports. The UAE's total non-oil trade increased by 0.5% in 2018, with a total value of AED 8.2 billion compared to 2017.In terms of value, non-oil imports amounted to AED 898.4 billion, down by AED 47.9 billion compared to 2017.
Chinese exports
China was the largest non-oil trading partner of the UAE in 2018, with non-oil trade of the two countries recorded 158.3 billion dirhams, or 10.3% of the total non-oil foreign trade of the country, followed by India with a total of 131.9 billion dirhams, and Saudi Arabia with a value of 107.4 billion dirhams. The UAE's trade with the three countries accounted for 25.9% of total non-oil foreign trade activities with the world in 2018.