New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that Ireland exported over €165 billion of goods in 2021 and imported almost €104 billion of goods.
The CSO said that exports of Chemicals and Related Products accounted for 62% of total exports, with a value of almost €103 billion.
Imports of Machinery and Transport Equipment accounted for €41 billion of the country's imports last year, while imports of Food & Live Animals were valued at over €7 billion.
Today's figures show that the US was the largest single export partner with exports of €52 billion.
The second biggest export partner was the UK with over €18 billion of exports, closely followed by Germany with over €17.7 billion.
China and Belgium complete the list of the remaining five export markets.
Meanwhile, the UK was the country's biggest import partner in 2021, accounting for 19% or €19.5 billion worth of Irish imports.
France, China and Germany made up the remaining top five import partners.
The CSO noted today that imports from Northern Ireland were 21% of total UK imports, with a value of €4 billion. This is an increase of 9% compared with 2020.
Imports from Great Britain decreased by 13% in 2021 compared with 2020.
Exports to Great Britain in 2021 were €14.4 billion, which was an increase of 17% compared with 2020. This was mainly due to increases in the exports of Chemicals & Related Products, the CSO said.
