Turkey is Georgia’s top trade partner in first quarter of 2021

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Tuesday, April 20

In January-March, the share of EU in Georgian Exports was 19.1%, the share of CIS countries - 44.7%.

In the first quarter of 2021, Georgia purchased goods worth $ 1.9 billion from around the world.

The National Statistics Office of Georgia (GeoStat) has released the foreign trade report. According to the document, in the first quarter of 2021, the foreign trade turnover of goods in Georgia amounted to $2 773.2 million, which is 0.3% less than the corresponding period of the previous year. According to a report released by Geostat, exports amounted to $ 820.6 million (up 5.2%) and imports to $ 1,952.6 million (down 2.4%). Georgia's negative trade balance in January-March amounted to $1 131.9 million, which is 40.8% of foreign trade turnover.

The share of groups of countries in exports is interesting: in January-March, the share of EU countries exports in Georgia's was 19.1%, the share of CIS countries - 44.7%, and the share of other countries was 36.2%.

As for the share of the 10 largest exporting countries in the total exports of Georgia in January-March, the top three were as follows: China ($109.8 million), Russia ($109.5 million) and Azerbaijan (4104.6 million), and their share is 76.7 %. Compared to the beginning of the last year, exports to the largest exporting countries increased the most in the US, Turkey and Ukraine, while decreased in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Armenia and Switzerland.

In the first quarter of 2021, copper ores and concentrates ranked first in the top 10 exports of commodity groups with $ 158.8 million, accounting for 19.4% of total exports. Light vehicles are in second place with $86.6 million (10.5% of total exports), and the third place is taken by ferroalloys with $83.7 million (10.2%). The largest increase among the TOP-10 exported products comes in exports of nuts, packaged medicines and ferroalloys.

As for the imports in January-March, the share of EU countries was 22.6%, the share of CIS countries - 31.2%, the share of other countries was 46.2%.

In the first quarter of 2021, Georgia purchased goods worth $ 1.9 billion from around the world. During this period, imports decreased by 2.4% compared to January-March last year.

According to a foreign trade report, 70.4% of Georgia's trade turnover fall (by 0.3% / $2.7 billion) in the first three months came from imports.

The share of the 10 largest import partner countries in the first three months of the year was 71.5%. The top 3 include: Turkey ($ 343.3 million), Russia ($ 220.4 million) and China ($ 182.8 million), while imports from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine and Germany are down.

The largest import commodity group was represented in January-March 2021 in the form of cars, imports amounted to $168.5 million and accounted for 8.6% of total imports. The second place was copper ores and concentrates with $145.8 million (7.5% of imports), while the third place was taken by oil and oil products with $141.9 million (7.3% of imports).