The Gambia's economy has always been based on farming. The production of peanuts, as well as rice, corn, millet and other kinds of cereals make up the largest part of The Gambia's economy. Senegal and The Gambia together are the world's greatest peanut exporter. Two thirds of all farmland is used for peanut production. In the 1970s, the price of peanuts increased substantially, and The Gambia profited from its large peanut production. Of course, the disadvantage of such a monoculture is a very high dependency on the peanut trade, potential harvest loss, changing world prices, and soil depletion.

Besides peanuts, the Gambians cultivate rice for their own consumption. As rice is a basic part of their diet, the Gambians usually eat it with every meal. The rice is mainly cultivated at the Gambia River shore. Despite all these efforts, 20% of all food still needs to be imported.
Only the small farmers breed cattle. While fishing is very important for The Gambia, it is not an industry as it is in Senegal. Although fishing and farming together make up approx. 60% of the gross domestic product, fishing is traditionally seen as a main aspect of Gambian self-reliance.

Re-export
Gambian tradespeople have used low prices and their good geographical location to develop a new transit market (re-export) with their West African neighbours. In particular, cheap goods are imported from China to the Freeport of Banjul to be sold for much higher prices to Senegal.

Tourism
Besides peanut production, tourism is the most important industry in The Gambia. Due to tourism and foreign exchange, there are many jobs (presently about 10,000) in the hotel and craft industries.
The first hotels were built in the Gambia in 1965, and this sector continues to grow. The hotels are mainly managed by European travel promoters. But you will hardly find any German promoters, as they left in 1999, when The Gambia legislated against "all-inclusive" offers. This law was created because Gambian politicians wanted to force the tourists to leave their hotels and get to know more of the country. After 1999, tourism decreased tremendously. Since then, the Gambians claim that their motto is "quality over quantity" although they are trying their very best to tempt tourists to come to their country.