Europe's share in WAEMU exports has increased by more than 7 percentage points in 9 years. In the Union, the main exporting country remains Côte d'Ivoire, which in 2020 accounted for more than 40% of exports from the zone.

Europe has been the main destination for WAEMU exports for several years, a trend that was confirmed in 2020, despite covid-19. According to the report on WAEMU's foreign trade for the year 2020 published by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), Europe's share in exports of goods from the he West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) has grown by 7.8 percentage points since 2012.

According to the document, Europe's share of the Union's sales increased from 41.1% in 2012 to 48.9% of its export products on the European market in 2020. Although the coronavirus disrupted world trade, the share of the Old Continent in WAEMU's goods exports rose by 2.9 percentage points between 2019 and 2020. 22.8% of these products were sold to the European Union and 26.1% supplied the markets of other European countries last year.

Apart from gold, WAEMU's main export products are cocoa products (16.9% in 2020), of which the Swiss nation is also one of the world's main consumers, petroleum products (6.8 % in 2020), cotton products (4.8% in 2020) and cashew products (3.9% in 2020). The largest WAEMU exporter remains Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso with 15.6%, Mali and Senegal.