What does Malaysia produce and export?
Malaysia ranks in the top ten producers of 9 commodities: palm kernel oil (#2, 25% of world output in 2023), palm oil (#2, 23% of world output in 2023), coconut oil (#6, 1.8% of world output in 2023), cloves (#8, 0.1% of world output in 2024), natural rubber (#8, 2.6% of world output in 2024), aluminum (#10, 1.5% of world output in 2025) and more. It is a top-ten exporter of palm kernel oil (#1, 29% of world export value in 2024), palm oil (#2, 34% of world export value in 2024), coconut oil (#3, 15% of world export value in 2024), tin (#4, 8.5% of world export value in 2024), aluminum (#5, 5.6% of world export value in 2024) and more.
British planters covered the Malay peninsula in rubber trees in the first decades of the twentieth century, and when synthetic rubber and cheaper Indonesian and Thai supply eroded the returns, the government pushed estates and settlement schemes toward oil palm from the 1960s. Oil palm yields more oil per hectare than any other crop, the same plantations and mills could be converted, and the expansion later crossed to Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo. Malaysia produced 23% of the world's palm oil in 2023 (FAOSTAT) and held 34% of world palm-oil export value in 2024 (CEPII BACI) — a larger share of the trade than of the crop, because refineries at Port Klang and Pasir Gudang buy crude palm oil from neighboring producers and ship out fractionated olein, stearin and specialty fats.
That pattern repeats across the economy. Malaysia grew only 2.6% of the world's natural rubber in 2024 (FAOSTAT) but took 6.9% of world natural-rubber export value in 2024 (CEPII BACI) and bought 8.3% of world natural-rubber import value in 2024 (CEPII BACI), because its factories turn imported latex into the medical gloves it dominates. It grows almost no cocoa yet bought 17% of world cocoa import value in 2024 (CEPII BACI), grinding West African and Indonesian beans into butter and powder for Asian confectioners. Tin tells the oldest version of the story: the dredged alluvial fields of the Kinta valley are largely worked out, and Malaysia mined 1.7% of world tin in 2025 (USGS) while smelting enough imported concentrate to hold 8.5% of world tin export value in 2024 (CEPII BACI).
Energy and metal follow cheap inputs rather than deposits. Offshore fields off Terengganu and Sarawak, and one of the earliest liquefaction plants in Asia at Bintulu, gave 3.6% of world natural gas export value in 2024 (CEPII BACI). Smelters built in Sarawak to use power from new hydroelectric dams produced 1.5% of the world's primary aluminum in 2025 (USGS) from entirely imported alumina, and held 5.6% of world aluminum export value in 2024 (CEPII BACI).
What does Malaysia produce?
| Commodity | World rank | Share of world | Production | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm kernel oil | 2 | 25% | 2.1 million t | 2023 | FAOSTAT |
| Palm oil | 2 | 23% | 18.6 million t | 2023 | FAOSTAT |
| Coconut oil | 6 | 1.8% | 56,100 t | 2023 | FAOSTAT |
| Cloves | 8 | 0.1% | 226 t | 2024 | FAOSTAT |
| Natural rubber | 8 | 2.6% | 386,512 t | 2024 | FAOSTAT |
| Aluminum | 10 | 1.5% | 1.1 million t | 2025 | USGS MCS |
| Pepper | 10 | 3.7% | 34,408 t | 2024 | FAOSTAT |
| Shrimp | 10 | 1.4% | 162,976 t | 2024 | fao_fisheries |
| Tin | 10 | 1.7% | 5,000 t | 2025 | USGS MCS |
What does Malaysia export?
| Rank | Commodity | Export value (US$) | Share of world |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crude oil | $46.7 billion | 3.5% |
| 2 | Natural gas | $17 billion | 3.6% |
| 3 | Palm oil | $15.1 billion | 34% |
| 4 | Aluminum | $4.5 billion | 5.6% |
| 5 | Coconut oil | $1.2 billion | 15% |
| 6 | Natural rubber | $1.2 billion | 6.9% |
| 7 | Urea | $756.5 million | 3.7% |
| 8 | Plywood | $664.1 million | 3.9% |
| 9 | Tin | $545.3 million | 8.5% |
| 10 | Lead | $418.7 million | 4.8% |
| Rest of world | $0 | 9.5% |
Malaysia's own tracked-export mix
| Commodity | World rank | Share of world exports | Export value | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm kernel oil | 1 | 29% | $314.8 million | 2024 |
| Palm oil | 2 | 34% | $15.1 billion | 2024 |
| Coconut oil | 3 | 15% | $1.2 billion | 2024 |
| Tin | 4 | 8.5% | $545.3 million | 2024 |
| Aluminum | 5 | 5.6% | $4.5 billion | 2024 |
| Lead | 5 | 4.8% | $418.7 million | 2024 |
| Natural rubber | 5 | 6.9% | $1.2 billion | 2024 |
| Niobium | 6 | 0.5% | $16.5 million | 2024 |
| Plywood | 6 | 3.9% | $664.1 million | 2024 |
| Natural gas | 7 | 3.6% | $17 billion | 2024 |
| Crude oil | 8 | 3.5% | $46.7 billion | 2024 |
| Boron | 9 | 0.5% | $5.7 million | 2024 |
| Rare earths | 9 | 1.1% | $12.6 million | 2024 |
| Silicon | 9 | 2.4% | $98.6 million | 2024 |
| Urea | 9 | 3.7% | $756.5 million | 2024 |
| Bauxite | 10 | 0.4% | $46.1 million | 2024 |
| Tungsten | 10 | 2% | $5.5 million | 2024 |
Top-ten importer of
- Cocoa: #2, 17% of world imports, $3.1 billion (2024)
- Rare earths: #2, 12% of world imports, $129.3 million (2024)
- Natural rubber: #3, 8.3% of world imports, $1.4 billion (2024)
- Palm kernel oil: #3, 12% of world imports, $132.5 million (2024)
- Coconut oil: #4, 8.7% of world imports, $691.7 million (2024)
- Zirconium: #4, 4.9% of world imports, $83.6 million (2024)
- Manganese: #5, 2.7% of world imports, $172.1 million (2024)
- Iron ore: #6, 1.3% of world imports, $2.1 billion (2024)
- Potash: #6, 2.8% of world imports, $565.8 million (2024)
- Silicon: #6, 5% of world imports, $201.4 million (2024)
- Boron: #7, 2.6% of world imports, $30.6 million (2024)
- Plywood: #7, 3% of world imports, $498.9 million (2024)
- Tungsten: #7, 1.1% of world imports, $3.1 million (2024)
- Cobalt: #8, 1.8% of world imports, $86.9 million (2024)
- Cotton: #8, 1.8% of world imports, $318.8 million (2024)
- Rice: #8, 2.7% of world imports, $1.1 billion (2024)
- Sugar: #8, 2.6% of world imports, $1.1 billion (2024)
- Yams: #8, 2.2% of world imports, $5.5 million (2024)
- Antimony: #9, 0.8% of world imports, $3.9 million (2024)
- Coal: #9, 2.6% of world imports, $4.6 billion (2024)
- Pepper: #9, 2.8% of world imports, $169.9 million (2024)
- Aluminum: #10, 3.2% of world imports, $2.6 billion (2024)
- Beef: #10, 1.9% of world imports, $711.9 million (2024)
- Milk: #10, 2.7% of world imports, $594.1 million (2024)
Sources: FAOSTAT (crops and livestock), USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries (minerals), Energy Institute Statistical Review (energy) for production; CEPII BACI for trade. Ranks count only the commodities on this site.
Malaysia commodity by commodity
Malaysia in the pattern reports
What Malaysia uses
Malaysia had about 35 million people and a food supply of 2,927 kilocalories per person a day in FAO's 2023 food balance sheets. Its eight largest supplies among the commodities tracked there:
| Commodity | Domestic supply | Share of world | kg per person | Self-sufficiency | Imported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk | 10.2 million tonnes | 0.9% | 45 | 0.5% | 106% |
| Palm oil | 5.6 million tonnes | 7.4% | 6.0 | 309% | 15% |
| Rice | 4.3 million tonnes | 0.6% | 118 | 52% | 54% |
| Cassava | 4.2 million tonnes | 1.3% | 1.8 | 0.9% | 99% |
| Corn | 4.0 million tonnes | 0.3% | 6.5 | <0.1% | 102% |
| Sugar | 1.9 million tonnes | 1.1% | 41 | 0.1% | 116% |
| Chicken | 1.8 million tonnes | 1.3% | 52 | 90% | 13% |
| Palm kernel oil | 1.6 million tonnes | 19% | 4.4 | 128% | 11% |
FAO reports a negative domestic supply for Malaysia's coffee (−80 thousand tonnes; production 6 thousand tonnes, imports 194 thousand tonnes, exports 280 thousand tonnes), meaning exports exceed production plus imports in the year. These are not counted as use and are left out of the table above.
Who supplies Malaysia
- Single-supplier markets. Malaysia buys half or more of its imports from one country in 10 of 25 import markets of $250 million or more, among them coal from Indonesia (58%, $4.6 billion); natural gas from Australia (60%, $3.0 billion); iron ore from Brazil (74%, $2.1 billion); sugar from Brazil (69%, $1.1 billion); corn from Argentina (78%, $977 million); beef from India (83%, $712 million). Import dependency.
Malaysia and critical minerals
The export controls register lists 1 measure imposed by Malaysia, of which 1 is in force, suspended or scheduled as of the register's date.
Downloads and citation
This country's rankings as JSON · PDF summary. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "What does Malaysia produce and export?", https://commodityorigins.com/countries/MYS/ (CC BY 4.0).
Data updated 22 October 2026.