This article covers trade between India and Benin, the main goods India exports, Indian companies in Benin, and the economic visits and agreements recorded in the MEA bilateral brief of April 2026. The brief takes its trade figures from DGCIS India. India's lines of credit to Benin are covered separately in the development article.

India as Benin's largest trading partner

According to the MEA brief of April 2026, India has emerged as the largest trading partner of Benin, with two-way trade touching US $ 1.3 billion in 2024-25.

The lead items of India's exports were rice, pharmaceutical products, electrical machinery, cotton and automobiles, particularly two and three-wheelers.

Trade figures, 2019-20 to 2024-25

The brief gives the following figures, in US$ million, by Indian financial year:

  • 2019-20: India's exports 327; India's imports 359; total trade 686.00.
  • 2020-21: India's exports 555.20; India's imports 325.97; total trade 881.17.
  • 2021-22: India's exports 716.41; India's imports 402.12; total trade 1118.53.
  • 2022-23: India's exports 892.81; India's imports 452.58; total trade 1345.40.
  • 2023-24: India's exports 752.55; India's imports 214.57; total trade 967.12.
  • 2024-25: India's exports 1,194.98; India's imports 130.51; total trade 1,325.49.

In 2019-20 the brief records India's imports from Benin as higher than its exports to Benin. In every later year shown, India's exports were higher than its imports.

About these figures

The figures are in US$ million for Indian financial years and come from DGCIS India, as cited in the brief. The headline figure of US $ 1.3 billion for 2024-25 is the brief's own rounded statement; its table gives 1,325.49 million for the same year. The figures for 2024-25 are the most recent full-year figures in the brief.

Indian companies in Benin

As of the brief, about 90 Indian companies, mainly in trading and retailing, are in Benin. They deal in textiles, rice, cashew, scrap, electronics and supermarkets.

Economic visits from Benin

Several Beninese ministers and leaders have visited India for economic meetings:

  • Mr. Pocoun Dame Kombienou, Minister of Industry and Commerce, attended the fourth meeting of the India-Africa Trade Ministers in New Delhi on 23 October 2015, shortly before the Third India-Africa Forum Summit.
  • President Patrice Talon led a 13-member delegation, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Planning, to India for the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB), held in Ahmedabad from 22 to 26 May 2017. The brief does not record bilateral meetings during that visit.
  • Mr. Dona Jean-Claude Houssou, Minister of Energy, visited India from 1 to 5 February 2023 to meet EXIM Bank officials.
  • Mr. Romuald Wadagni, Minister of Economy and Finance, visited India from 1 to 5 February 2025 to meet EXIM Bank officials.

Export credit and investment insurance

An MoU on cooperation in the field of export credit and investment insurance was one of the four Agreements and MoUs signed during the State visit of President Ram Nath Kovind to Benin from 28 to 30 July 2019.

Business mechanisms

The India-Benin Joint Commission, which covers economic cooperation among other subjects, is described in the relations article. Its first meeting was held in 2009, and the brief states that the second is to be held on mutually agreed dates.