Agricultural products: vanilla, cloves, perfume essences, copra, coconuts, bananas, cassava (tapioca). Most of these crops are in the hands of French companies and a few businessmen
Exports: $9.3 million (f.o.b., estimation of 1998)
Exports - commodities: vanilla, cloves, perfume oil, copra and ylang-ylang (a tropical Asian tree flowers from which a perfume is distilled).
Exports - partners: France 43%, US 43%, Germany 7% (1997)
Imports: $49.5 million (f.o.b., estimation of 1998)
Imports - commodities: rice and other foodstuffs, consumer goods; petroleum products, cement, transport equipment
Imports - partners: France 59%, South Africa 15%, Kenya 6% (1997)
Demand for copra, vanilla and ylang-ylang is now shrinking. Many former importers of vanilla and ylang-ylang now manufacture synthetic substitutes.