Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia: Georgia’s top trading partners in 2014

Georgia is exporting fewer products and importing more from abroad, says the country’s National Statistics Office, Geostat.

The volume of Georgia’s exports is on a slight downward trend while imports are on the rise, according to latest information by the country’s National Statistics Office, Geostat.

This week Geostat published data about external trade of Georgia for 2014 and compared it with earlier data; in the past five years Georgia’s export volumes has increased until now, while imports has steadily risen since 2010.

In 2014 the total value of Georgia’s exports was $2,861 million USD, while the value of all imports was $8,593 million USD. To compare, in 2013 the total value of Georgia’s exports was $2,910 million USD, while the value of all imports was $8,012 million USD.

Geostat noted in 2014 Europe was the largest importer of Georgian goods (worth $1,095 million), followed by countries in Asia ($1,453 million), America ($287 million), Africa $25 million) then Oceania region ($1 million).

Similarly, last year most imports came from Europe ($3,599 million), followed by countries in Asia ($4,479 million), America ($450 million), Africa ($61 million) and finally Oceania region countries ($4 million).

Overall, the Geostat data showed Asia took the largest share of Georgian external trade (51.8 percent) followed by Europe (41 percent), America (6.4 percent) and Africa and Oceania (with 0.8 percent combined).

Georgia’s top trading partners in 2014 in terms of turnover were :

• Turkey, 
•  Azerbaijan, 
• Russia, 
• China, 
• Ukraine,
•  Germany, 
• Armenia, 
• United States, 
• Bulgaria 
•  Japan – collectively these nations generated 68 percent of total turnover while countries in ‘other’ category made up the remaining 32 percent.

Georgia’s top ten export markets in 2014 were:

• Azerbaijan with $545 million ($710 million in 2013), 
• Armenia with $288 million ($315 million in 2013), 
• Russia with $275 million ($190 million in 2013), 
• Turkey with $239 million ($184 million in 2013), 
• United States with $207 million ($138 million in 2013),
•  Bulgaria with $167 million ($151 million in 2013), 
• Ukraine with $140 million ($193 million in 2013), 
• China with $90 million ($34 million in 2013), 
• Kazakhstan with $89 million ($4,104 million in 2013),
•  Italy with $86 million ($81 million in 2013

• Turkey with $1,727 million ($1,409 million in 2013), 
• China $733 million ($612 million in 2013), 
• Azerbaijan $638 million ($65million in 2013), 
• Russia $575 million ($584 million in 2013), 
• Ukraine $546 million ($601 million in 2013), 
• Germany $466 million ($449 million in 2013), 
• Japan $368 million ($320 million in 2013), 
• Romania $311 million ($323 million in 2013), 
• United States $287 million ($254 million in 2013) ,
• Italy $222 million ($221 million in 2013).

Which commodities did Georgia export/import last year?

Motor cars were the main commodity item exported last year (18.1 percent of total exports), followed by:

• Ferro-alloys (10 percent),
•  Copper ores (8.7 percent), 
• Nuts (6.4 percent), 
• Wine (6.3 percent), 
• Fertilizers (4.8 percent), 
• Mineral water (4.8 percent), 
• Alcoholic spirits (3.3 percent), 
• Medicaments (3.2 percent), 
• Metal bars (2.2 percent) ,
• Other (32.1 percent).

Conversely, Georgia’s main imports were:

•  Petroleum (10.7 percent of total imports),
•  Motor cars (8.3 percent), 
• Gases (4.3 percent), 
• Medicines (3.7 percent), 
• Telephones (2.3 percent), 
• Copper ores (1.9 percent), 
• Wheat (1.8 percent), 
• Cigarettes (1.3 percent), 
• Automatic data (1.2 percent), 
• Structures (1.1 percent),
•  Other (63.5 percent).

Tea, Coffee, Crops, Confectionery

Georgia exported $1,377,300 worth of black tea in 2014 and imported $8,008,000 worth of the same product. Exports of green tea reached $951,500 and import volume reached $564,700.

As for coffee, last year Georgia exported $290,200 worth of ground coffee and imported $13,938,700 worth of the same product. Georgia exported $136,500 worth of instant coffee and imported $19,303,900 worth of the same product from abroad.

Georgia imported $173,228,900 worth of crops (wheat, maize, rice, barley, oats, cereals and other) in 2014 and $114 million worth of confectionery.

Tropical fruits

Last year Georgia imported 17 million tonnes of banana (worth $19,983,500), one million tonnes of pineapple ($41,699,700), 269 tonnes of dates ($300,000), 41 tonnes of avocado ($108,500) and 0.8 tonnes of papaya ($5,500).

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages

Mineral water was one of Georgia’s main exports in 2014.

Mineral water valued at $136,777,600 was exported last year while $327,900 worth of the same product was imported; fresh/spring water worth $346 million was exported while $153,100 was imported; and finally Georgia exported $28,715,500 worth of aerated waters containing sugar and imported $24,213,700 of the same products.

Last year Georgia exported $10,526,500 worth of fruit and vegetable juices, of which orange juice took the largest share ($15,300). As for imports, the country imported $6,124,600 worth of fruit and vegetable juices.

Almost $25 million worth of alcoholic beverages was exported last year. In particular, $24,850,800 worth of alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, vodka, liquor, rum and gin, were exported while $41,402,300 of the same products were imported.

• All figures are in US dollar.