Azerbaijan’s exports to Uzbekistan jumped 99.3% to $87.38 million in January-August 2026, while imports from Uzbekistan fell 44.7% to $137.19 million. The shift cut the bilateral trade deficit to $49.82 million from $204.31 million a year earlier.
According to trade statistics, exports were the faster-growing side of Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan trade this year, with sugar products driving most of the increase. Sugar exports to Uzbekistan rose 170.7% to $48.72 million. One of the leading companies in this sector is Azerbaijan Sugar Production Union LLC, part of the Azersun Holding group, whose factory in the city of Imishli supplies sugar to Uzbekistan and other Central Asian markets.
Sales of aluminium alloys climbed 54.7% to $9 million, while baby food shipments reached $3.94 million. There is no separate official data on the share held by Azeraluminium LLC, one of the country’s leading aluminium exporters, in these shipments.
The sharp drop in imports was driven mainly by a halt in gold trading. In the same period last year, Azerbaijan imported $124.91 million worth of semi-finished gold from Uzbekistan; this time, no deliveries under that category were recorded at all. Excluding gold, imports actually rose by 11.3%.
Among other goods, walnut kernel imports grew 47.3% to $9.54 million, and dried grape purchases rose 30.5% to $5.47 million. Imports of galvanized steel sheets jumped roughly twelvefold to $4.40 million, while copper wire imports fell to $3.88 million from $11.89 million.
Trade turnover still far from target
Overall trade turnover between the two countries fell 23.1% to $224.57 million, well short of the long-term goal set by the two governments. Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, which signed a strategic alliance agreement in 2024, had their leaders confirm a plan in August 2026 during talks in Tashkent to raise turnover to $1 billion by 2030.
At that meeting on August 23, the two sides discussed projects in trade, industrial cooperation, energy and transport. A follow-up meeting held in Azerbaijan on October 14 reviewed progress on implementing the earlier agreements.
Concrete investment steps have also been taken. Around the same time as the August talks, Azerbaijan’s ABB bank launched the Davr Bank project in Uzbekistan, and the Metanat-A company opened a gypsum plant. Groundbreaking ceremonies were also held for five fuel stations belonging to state oil company SOCAR, as well as for the Sea Breeze Uzbekistan and Baku City residential complexes. Of the $500 million joint investment fund set up by the two states, nearly $160 million has already been allocated to specific projects.
President Ilham Aliyev, speaking at a regional summit in Turkmenbashi on October 8, said Azerbaijan’s trade turnover with Central Asian states grew by more than 50% in 2025. He noted that more than 400 companies with capital from regional countries now operate in Azerbaijan, and that transit cargo volumes along the Middle Corridor route rose by about 20% in the first eight months of 2026.
