plate 367 · 2025 data

Southeast Asia now imports most fries from China and India

Share of frozen fries imports by supplier, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia combined, by value, 2015 vs 2025.

Trade rewired
  1. 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
  2. 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
  3. 3. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
  4. 4. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
  5. 5. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
  6. 6. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
  7. 7. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
  8. 8. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
  9. 9. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
  10. 10. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
  11. 11. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
  12. 12. China now buys more from Brazil than from Germany
  13. 13. Kazakhstan now sells Russia more than Germany does
  14. 14. China fell to third among America's suppliers in 2025
  15. 15. America overtook China as Taiwan's biggest export market
  16. 16. Mongolia's coal exports hit a record 90 million tonnes
  17. 17. Viet Nam's ports now handle more containers than Japan's
  18. 18. Liberia overtook Panama as the biggest flag by ship capacity
  19. 19. Nickel made Indonesia the world's fifth-biggest iron and steel exporter
  20. 20. Mexico again hosts more US investment than China
  21. 21. Mexico replaced China as America's top computer supplier
  22. 22. France fell from first to third among Côte d'Ivoire's suppliers
  23. 23. Wigs are nearly half of what North Korea sells China
  24. 24. Viet Nam overtook China as Morocco's top smartphone supplier
  25. 25. China became the top electric car supplier in 21 countries
  26. 26. Indonesia became America's biggest solar panel supplier
  27. 27. 21 countries now buy more from China than from Russia
  28. 28. China's share of world cotton imports halved, to a fifth
  29. 29. Morocco's container ports grew fastest of the world's top 40
  30. 30. China now supplies almost two-thirds of lithium-ion battery imports
  31. 31. 13 countries made India their biggest medicine supplier
  32. 32. China passed Denmark as top supplier of imported wind turbines
  33. 33. Thailand lost the top rice supplier spot in 18 countries
  34. 34. UAE-based shipowners tripled their fleet and entered the top ten
  35. 35. Viet Nam lost top coffee supplier status in 12 countries
  36. 36. India now imports more cotton than it exports
  37. 37. America's share of Ecuador's exports fell from 45% to 19%
  38. 38. Japan's share of Qatar's exports fell from 30% to 7%
  39. 39. Southeast Asia now imports most fries from China and India
  40. 40. China replaced America as Mexico's main electric car supplier
54.8%

China (33.8%) and India (21.0%) supplied over half of the four countries' frozen fries imports in 2025, up from 1.4% in 2015.

20.4%

The United States' share in 2025, down from 48.0% in 2015; Belgium and the Netherlands fell from 32.9% to 12.5%.

2.9×

The four countries' fries import bill rose from $215 million to $620 million, and China and India took 83% of the rise.

Source: UN Comtrade, imports of frozen potatoes and fries (HS 200410) by partner, reported by each importer, 2025
the numbers & method
Southeast Asia now imports most fries from China and India. Source: UN Comtrade, imports of frozen potatoes and fries (HS 200410) by partner, reported by each importer, 2025.
China and India ($M)United States ($M)Belgium and Netherlands ($M)Others ($M)
20153.0103.270.837.9
2025339.9126.477.876.2

Claim types Fact

UN Comtrade, HS 200410 (potatoes prepared or preserved, frozen: mostly frozen fries), imports as reported by the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, US$ (CIF), calendar years. 2015 values read live from the UN Comtrade public API (comtradeapi.un.org, one request per reporter); 2025 values read from the UN Comtrade API via the progrss vault (vault rule GUIDELINES §4.11; source un-comtrade passes value checks, 24 matches, 0 mismatches). Shares are of the four countries' combined imports from the world, progrss calculation. US$ million, 2015 vs 2025: total 214.9 vs 620.3 (Philippines 49.9 vs 256.3, Thailand 49.6 vs 100.8, Malaysia 74.0 vs 148.6, Indonesia 41.4 vs 114.7); China 2.8 vs 209.9; India 0.2 vs 130.1; United States 103.2 vs 126.4; Belgium + Netherlands 70.8 vs 77.8. 2015 partner values are read to US$0.1 million. China's exports of these fries to the Philippines, as China reports them, rose every year from 2022 (32.5) to 2025 (97.3), so 2025 is not a one-year jump. Shares are by value. Checked on the Philippines only: in 2025 Chinese ($1.14/kg) and Indian ($1.09/kg) fries were cheaper than American ($1.47/kg), so by weight China and India supplied 66% of Philippine imports against 59% by value. Viet Nam (US$7.0 million in 2015) has not reported 2024 or 2025 imports to UN Comtrade and is left out. Singapore, a re-export hub, is left out; including it, China and India still supply 52% in 2025. China and India's own reported exports to the four countries rose every year, 2022 to 2025 (US$139 million to 342 million). Malaysia alone: 38.8% from China and India in 2025.

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