Visualisations
The visualisations are graphic representations of more than five years of trade data. They provide an opportunity to explore South Africa’s trade figures. For assistance or queries, please email tradestatistics@sars.gov.za.

Data Download
The data download is in BETA release. We have restricted the amount of data that can be downloaded. Should you not be able to download what you need, please email tradestatistics@sars.gov.za with details of your query.
UN IMTS 2010
SARS follows the guidelines in the United Nations International Merchandise Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions 2010 (UN IMTS 2010) manual, when reporting South Africa’s merchandise trade statistics. We currently follow a hybrid special strict system, which means that warehoused goods destined for local consumption are included. Furthermore, goods imported and exported for processing are excluded from trade statistics. Efforts are being made to move to a general system to enable easier comparison with other countries trade numbers. The UN IMTS 2010 manual is available here​.

FOB
SARS reports South Africa’s trade statistics, both on exports and imports, as Free-on-Board (FOB).

Country Code ZN – Origin of Goods is Unknown
Country code ZN is described as “Origin of Goods is Unknown”. For purposes of better understanding, this has been renamed to “Gold, Petroleum and Other” as over 95% of this bubble is made up of gold. Gold, due to legacy data rules, is treated as a country. You will therefore not be able to determine where the exports are going to or the imports are coming from. The aim is to rectify this, for gold specifically, as part of moving to the general system.

Contact Us
For assistance or queries, please email tradestatistics@sars.gov.za.​  

Country Of Destination / Country Of Origin
SARS reports South Africa’s exports based on Country of Destination (COD) and imports are reported based on Country of Origin (COO) in accordance with UN IMTS guidelines.

ZA imports from ZA
South Africa’s imports from South Africa occur in the case of re-imports (imports of domestic goods which were previously recorded as exports).