Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Uzbekistan’s foreign trade turnover reached US$65.4 billion in January–September 2026, up US$3.9 billion, or 6.3%, from the same period last year. However, exports declined while imports continued to grow, and the trade deficit nearly doubled from US$6.9 billion to US$13.7 billion, according to preliminary data from the National Statistics Committee.
Exports of goods and services totalled US$25.8 billion, down 5.5%. Imports, by contrast, increased by 15.7% to US$39.6 billion.
The decline in exports was largely attributable to a reduction in non-monetary gold shipments, which fell from US$9.8 billion in the first nine months of 2025 to US$2.8 billion in January–September 2026. Excluding gold, merchandise exports reached US$13.3 billion, an increase of 31.6%.
Exports
Goods accounted for 62.4% of Uzbekistan’s total exports. The largest product categories included manufactured goods, miscellaneous manufactured articles, chemicals and food products.
Exports of manufactured goods reached US$3.8 billion, up 27.6%, accounting for 14.7% of total exports. Shipments of miscellaneous manufactured articles more than doubled to US$2.6 billion, representing 10.2% of exports. Chemical exports rose by 35.1% to US$2 billion, while food exports declined by 3.4% to approximately US$2 billion.
Exports of machinery and transport equipment increased by 40.6% to US$1.1 billion. Mineral fuel exports rose by 4.4% to US$1.2 billion.
Within the fuel category, exports of petroleum products increased by 44.4% to US$672.5 million. Gas exports fell by 34.5% to US$357.9 million, while electricity exports grew by 26.9% to US$145.8 million.
Textile exports rose by 28.1% to US$2.4 billion, accounting for 9.3% of total exports. Finished textile products made up 50.8% of textile shipments, while yarn accounted for another 33%.
Services exports increased by 31.1% to US$9.7 billion, representing 37.6% of total exports. Travel services, including tourism, generated US$5.3 billion, or 54.9% of services exports. Transport services brought in US$2.9 billion, accounting for 29.7%. Telecommunications, computer and information services represented 8.3%, while other business services accounted for 2.6%.
Exports of fruit and vegetable products totalled US$1.3 billion, down 10.9% year on year and accounting for 5% of total exports. In volume terms, shipments declined by 3%, or 48,200 tonnes, to 1.56 million tonnes.
Fruit exports fell from US$489.2 million to US$445.2 million. Cherry exports declined from US$72.5 million to US$59.9 million, while dried grape exports fell from US$92.8 million to US$74.2 million.
Vegetable exports, however, increased from US$172.1 million to US$206.2 million. Onion shipments totalled 317,300 tonnes, valued at US$92.4 million.
Russia was Uzbekistan’s largest export destination, receiving US$3.5 billion worth of goods and services, or 13.6% of total exports. Exports to China reached US$2.3 billion, while shipments to Afghanistan totalled US$1.4 billion, representing 8.9% and 5.4% of exports, respectively.
The 10 largest export markets also included Hong Kong and Kazakhstan, at US$1.2 billion each, as well as France, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Hong Kong accounted for 4.6% of exports, Kazakhstan 4.5%, France 3.9%, the UAE and Türkiye 3.1% each, Kyrgyzstan 3% and Tajikistan 2.3%. Together, these 10 destinations accounted for more than half of Uzbekistan’s exports.
Imports
Imports of goods increased by US$4.8 billion from the same period last year to US$34.4 billion. Imports of services reached US$5.2 billion, up 12.2%, accounting for 13% of total imports.
Machinery and transport equipment was the largest import category, totalling US$12.9 billion, or 32.5% of the total. Imports in this category increased by 14.4%. Imports of manufactured goods reached US$5.8 billion, up 4.7%, while chemical imports rose by 17% to US$4.8 billion.
Food imports increased by 37.5% to US$4.2 billion. Grain imports rose by 59.4% to US$1.1 billion, while imports of meat and meat products increased by 32.2% to US$779.3 million.
Imports of mineral fuels grew by 21.6% to US$3.4 billion. Gas purchases totalled US$1.6 billion, up 49.9% year on year. Imports of petroleum products also reached US$1.6 billion, an increase of 6%.
Within this category, petrol imports rose by 33.6% to US$454 million. Diesel fuel imports, by contrast, declined by 19.1% to US$189.1 million.
Imports of motor vehicles and other transport equipment, including parts and accessories, reached US$3.2 billion, up 26.4% from January–September 2025. Imports of passenger cars increased by 52.5% to US$1.2 billion.
Purchases of telecommunications, sound-recording and sound-reproducing equipment rose by 73.9% to US$1.3 billion. Aircraft imports, however, fell by 33.9% to US$271.7 million.
Travel services, including tourism, accounted for 40.8% of services imports. Transport services represented 32.5%, other business services 9.7%, and telecommunications, computer and information services 8.3%.
Uzbekistan imported goods and services from more than 160 countries. China was the largest supplier, with shipments valued at US$12.9 billion. According to the published statistics, China accounted for 32.5% of imports. Russia supplied US$6.9 billion worth of goods, while Kazakhstan supplied US$3.1 billion.
Other major suppliers included Türkiye, South Korea, Turkmenistan and Germany, with reported shares of 3.7%, 3.5%, 2.2% and 2.1%, respectively. Together, the seven countries listed in the statistics accounted for more than 65% of imports.
Trading partners
Uzbekistan maintains trade relations with more than 200 countries. China remained its largest trading partner by total foreign trade turnover, with bilateral trade reaching US$15.2 billion in the first nine months of 2026, or 23.2% of the total. This represented a 27.6% increase from the same period last year.
Russia ranked second, with trade turnover of US$10.5 billion, accounting for 16% of the total. Bilateral trade increased by 10.5% year on year.
Trade turnover with Kazakhstan rose by 22.3% to US$4.3 billion, or 6.5% of Uzbekistan’s total foreign trade. Türkiye followed with US$2.2 billion, or 3.4%, while trade with Afghanistan reached US$1.6 billion, representing 2.4% of the total.
Some of the most significant increases in trade turnover were recorded with the UAE and Hong Kong. Trade with the UAE rose from US$943.2 million to US$1.4 billion. Turnover with Hong Kong increased more than 11-fold, from US$109.6 million to US$1.3 billion.
