Azerbaijan Export Trade Data: $33.9B in 2023, Down 11.1%

Azerbaijan's Top Export Destinations in 2023

Azerbaijan exported $33.90 billion worth of goods in 2023, the latest year with verified trade data in this dataset. That total marks a decline of 11.1% from the $38.15 billion recorded in 2022. Italy was overwhelmingly the largest destination for Azerbaijan's exports, absorbing 44.9% of the total, worth $15.21 billion, nearly three times what the second-ranked partner received.

Turkey ranked a distant second at 15.8% ($5.36 billion), ahead of Israel at 4.1% ($1.40 billion) and Greece at 4.0% ($1.36 billion). India took fifth place at 3.6% ($1.23 billion), followed by Russia at 3.5% ($1.20 billion) and Germany at 2.7% ($907.92 million). Spain supplied 2.3% ($785.37 million), Georgia added 2.2% ($759.44 million), and Czechia rounded out the top ten at 2.0% ($684.22 million). Together, the top three destinations made up 64.8% of total export value.

Italy and Türkiye together absorb more than three in every five dollars of Azerbaijan's exports, a pattern closely tied to the overland pipeline infrastructure that carries Azerbaijani oil and gas westward through Türkiye before reaching Italian shores. That geography explains why two Mediterranean-facing economies dominate the destination rankings so heavily, while the remaining eight partners in the top ten are all comparatively small, none exceeding 5% of the total.

Beyond the top two, the partner list spans a wide geographic range for a relatively modest set of remaining export volumes: Israel, Greece, India, Russia, Germany, Spain, Georgia, and Czechia together account for less than a quarter of the total, reflecting smaller-scale energy and non-energy shipments alongside Azerbaijan's core pipeline relationships. Georgia's presence in the top ten, as Azerbaijan's only immediate neighbor on the list, points to a modest but steady regional trade relationship distinct from the long-distance energy flows that dominate the top of the ranking. Russia's sixth-place ranking is also notable, since it sits well behind the Mediterranean-facing partners at the top of the list despite geographic proximity, suggesting that pipeline access and refining capacity in destination markets carry more weight for Azerbaijan's export pattern than distance alone.

An Export Economy Built Almost Entirely on Oil and Gas

Mineral fuels, mineral oils, and related distillation products dominated Azerbaijan's export categories in 2023, worth $31.02 billion and accounting for 91.5% of total export value, one of the most extreme single-category concentrations possible in a national export profile. Fruit and nuts followed a distant second at 1.5% ($513.49 million), and plastics ranked third at 1.4% ($460.79 million).

Vegetables added 0.6% ($212.41 million), while aluminium and related articles contributed 0.6% ($195.18 million). Vehicles and related parts and accessories brought in 0.5% ($180.04 million), and precious stones and metals added 0.5% ($166.89 million). Cotton contributed 0.5% ($163.96 million), organic chemicals added 0.3% ($91.47 million), and machinery and mechanical appliances closed out the top ten at 0.3% ($89.58 million).

Every category outside mineral fuels combines for less than a tenth of total export value, a level of concentration that leaves fruit, plastics, vegetables, aluminium, and the rest of the non-energy list functioning as a minor addendum to an economy built overwhelmingly around hydrocarbon exports. Agricultural products such as fruit, nuts, and vegetables make up the largest non-fuel presence on the list, rather than manufactured or processed goods, pointing to a modest but genuine agricultural export base sitting alongside the dominant energy sector.

For buyers evaluating Azerbaijan as a supply source outside of energy, the category list points to a genuinely narrow market: fruit and nuts, plastics, and vegetables together clear barely 3.5% of total export value, and nothing beyond mineral fuels reaches even 2% individually. That narrowness stands in contrast to the partner rankings, where even after Italy and Türkiye's outsized share, eight additional countries still register meaningful volumes across the remainder of the list, meaning Azerbaijan's export base is far more concentrated by product than it is by destination. The tenth-ranked category, machinery, closes the list at just 0.3% of total value, a figure so small relative to the leading category that it illustrates just how completely oil and gas define the country's role in global trade.

A Pullback After an Unusually Strong 2022

The five-year trend shows exports climbing unevenly before a sharp two-year surge and a pullback. Exports moved from $19.64 billion in 2019 to $13.73 billion in 2020, recovered to $22.21 billion in 2021, then jumped sharply to $38.15 billion in 2022 before falling 11.1% to $33.90 billion in 2023. Even with that decline, the 2023 total remains far above every year before 2022, indicating the prior year's total was an unusually strong outlier rather than 2023 marking a return to pre-surge levels.

This pattern is consistent with the World Bank's WITS trade summary for Azerbaijan, which confirms Italy's dominant role as the country's leading export destination alongside petroleum and natural gas as the top exported products. For a closer look at how individual partner countries or product categories break down year over year, the data panels above provide the full detail behind these figures.