STAFF WRITER
Namibia imported rice worth N$31 million from Thailand and South
Africa in the last quarter of 2025 .
This comes at a time the country is ramping up efforts to imcreac=se production at the Kalimbezi Green Scheme project which has faced viability problems in the past few years.
The latest trade statistics released by the Namibia Statistics Agency on Tuesday show that Namibia’s trade balance recorded a deficit of N$4.4 billion.
Trade balance is the difference between the country’s exports and imports.
“This development reflects a worsened trade balance when compared to a N$2.9 billion deficit recorded a month earlier. Further analysis shows a N$5.5 billion deficit recorded year-on-year. The analysis of Namibia’s top trading partners revealed that South Africa emerged as the country’s largest market for both exports and imports,” Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni said.
Shimuafeni added that the country’s export basket for November 2025 was mainly
composed of commodities of the mining sector such as non-monetary gold uranium, precious stones (diamonds).
“Fish and ‘fruit and nuts’ were the only non-mineral products among the top
five exports. Moreover, notable decreases of 26.1 percent and 33.0 percent were observed for re-exports both month-on-month and year-on-year,” he said.
He added that the re-export basket primarily comprised ‘ores and concentrates of base metals, nickel ores and concentrates , precious stones (diamonds), petroleum oils and fertilizers.
On the other hand, the import basket mainly consisted of petroleum oils, motor vehicles (for commercial purposes), nickel ores and concentrates’, fertilizers and ‘ores and concentrates of base metals’.
“A closer review of trade in food items revealed that Namibia was a net exporter (exported more than it imported) of food with a trade surplus of N$291 million and a net importer (imported more than it exported) of Beverages, having recorded a deficit amounting to N$251 million,” Shimuafeni said.
The current report considered rice as the commodity of the month.
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