What El Salvador buys, and from whom.
El Salvador imported USD 11bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 6 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 4 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries El Salvador 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 El Salvador is best placed to make itself, see Made here: El Salvador.
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1
China
Share of El Salvador's imports23 per centChangedown 5 per cent on 2022USD 2.7bnin 2024 -
2
United States
Share of El Salvador's imports15 per centChangedown 6 per cent on 2022USD 1.7bnin 2024 -
3
Guatemala
Share of El Salvador's imports13 per centChangedown 3 per cent on 2022USD 1.4bnin 2024 -
4
Mexico
Share of El Salvador's imports11 per centChangedown 5 per cent on 2022USD 1.3bnin 2024 -
5
Honduras
Share of El Salvador's imports4 per centChangedown 37 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 499min 2024 -
6
Costa Rica
Share of El Salvador's imports4 per centChangeup 25 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 408min 2024 -
7
Japan
Share of El Salvador's imports3 per centChangedown 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 282min 2024 -
8
South Korea
Share of El Salvador's imports2 per centChangedown 11 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 281min 2024 -
9
Germany
Share of El Salvador's imports2 per centChangeup 5 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 231min 2024 -
10
India
Share of El Salvador's imports2 per centChangedown 19 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 206min 2024 -
11
Colombia
Share of El Salvador's imports2 per centChangeup 10 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 200min 2024 -
12
Brazil
Share of El Salvador's imports2 per centChangedown 3 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 193min 2024 -
13
Spain
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangedown 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 166min 2024 -
14
Vietnam
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangedown 2 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 160min 2024 -
15
Thailand
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangeup 17 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 154min 2024 -
16
Indonesia
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangeup 38 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 123min 2024 -
17
Italy
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangedown 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 122min 2024 -
18
Argentina
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangeup 27 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 117min 2024 -
19
Taiwan
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangedown 28 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 101min 2024 -
20
France
Share of El Salvador's imports1 per centChangeup 19 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 91min 2024
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 El Salvador 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 China's part of everything El Salvador 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.
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.