The principal export crop is caca, with cassava and sweet potatoes being the staple foods. Local manufacturing industries include the processing of oil and soap, cocoa, yucca, coffee, and seafood. Large offshore oil deposits were discovered in 1995. Open grassland are found in the extreme north and a dense rain forest covers the southwest. The mineral resources of this primarily agricultural country are relatively undeveloped.
Diamonds are the dominant exploited mineral.
Its economy is dependent primarily on its agricultural and timber resources, although receipts from petroleum reserves constitute a primary source of government revenue. Indigenous and recently introduced crops yield important food products. Extensive fish resources in Lake Chad and the Chari River are also of vital importance. The principal resource of Libya is petroleum. Date palms and olive and orange trees grow in the scattered oases, and junipers and mastic trees are found in the higher elevations.