Trade lanes

What Botswana buys, and from whom.

Botswana imported USD 3.4bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 14 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 1 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.

Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.

By source

The twenty countries Botswana imports most from.

A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Botswana is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Botswana.

  1. 1

    South Africa

    Share of Botswana's imports82 per cent
    Changedown 3 per cent on 2022
    USD 2.8bnin 2024
  2. 2

    China

    Share of Botswana's imports7 per cent
    Changeup 8 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 239min 2024
  3. 3

    Germany

    Share of Botswana's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 4 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 67min 2024
  4. 4

    Namibia

    Share of Botswana's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 22 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 46min 2024
  5. 5

    India

    Share of Botswana's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 54 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 41min 2024
  6. 6

    Zambia

    Share of Botswana's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 47 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 40min 2024
  7. 7

    United States

    Share of Botswana's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 68 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 21min 2024
  8. 8

    Australia

    Share of Botswana's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 34 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 19min 2024
  9. 9

    Zimbabwe

    Share of Botswana's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 10 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 17min 2024
  10. 10

    Japan

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 78 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 13min 2024
  11. 11

    Belgium

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 29 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 9min 2024
  12. 12

    United Kingdom

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 74 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 9min 2024
  13. 13

    France

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 28 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 9min 2024
  14. 14

    Italy

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 49 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 7min 2024
  15. 15

    Netherlands

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 68 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 6min 2024
  16. 16

    Spain

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 27 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 4min 2024
  17. 17

    Canada

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 39 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 4min 2024
  18. 18

    Switzerland

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 73 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 4min 2024
  19. 19

    Turkey

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 65 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 4min 2024
  20. 20

    Cyprus

    Share of Botswana's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 127 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 4min 2024
What this record says

What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.

Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.

Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Botswana with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.

Share is South Africa's part of everything Botswana imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.

Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.

What it does not say

A record of trade, not a shopping list.

What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.

Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.