Malaysia ranks in the top ten producers of 8 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.
Share of world production, 2023. Countries with no reported production are unshaded.
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).
Malaysia's largest commodity exports by value, with share of world exports for each line (CEPII BACI, 2024). Bars show share of world trade in that commodity, not share of the country's exports.
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)
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)
Plywood: #7, 3% of world imports, $498.9 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)
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.
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This country's rankings as JSON. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "What does Malaysia produce and export?", https://commodityorigins.com/countries/MYS/ (CC BY 4.0).