Georgia Export Trade Data: $6.09B in 2023, Up 9.03%

A Small Country Became a Massive Used-Car Re-Export Hub

Georgia exported $6.09 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 9.03% from $5.58 billion the year before. Vehicles led every category by a huge margin, worth $2.26 billion, or 37.15% of the total, since Georgia manufactures essentially no cars of its own. Georgia's used car exports to Kazakhstan alone surged from 7,352 vehicles in 2022 to 39,896 in 2023, with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia serving as the primary intermediary routes where vehicles are registered before many are ultimately driven into Russia. Western sanctions on Russia pushed much of this trade through neighboring Central Asian markets instead of directly to Russia, since Georgia officially halted vehicle re-exports to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, with further restrictions added in September 2023.

Beverages, spirits, and vinegar ranked second at 11.60% ($705.87 million), a category built almost entirely around wine. Georgia is widely recognized as the birthplace of wine, with archaeological evidence of winemaking dating back roughly 8,000 years and a traditional clay-vessel method, the qvevri, recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. Ores, slag, and ash added 8.99% ($546.97 million), tied to Georgia's long history of manganese mining. Fruit and nuts contributed 3.39% ($206.59 million), and iron and steel added 3.18% ($193.34 million), a smaller but still meaningful industrial category.

Mineral fuels contributed 2.69% ($163.48 million), a modest figure given Georgia's role as a transit corridor for regional oil and gas pipelines rather than a producer in its own right. Machinery, boilers, and nuclear reactors added 2.65% ($161.35 million), and fertilizers took 2.61% ($158.88 million), tied to Georgia's agricultural exports elsewhere on this list. Pharmaceutical products added 2.30% ($139.89 million), and live animals closed out the top ten at 2.16% ($131.75 million). Outside of vehicles, no other category comes close to matching the scale of the re-export trade that now defines Georgia's export list, and every category below wine and manganese sits under 4% of the total.

Former Soviet Neighbors Dominate the Buyer List

Azerbaijan bought 14.16% of Georgia's exports, worth $862.01 million, the largest single destination. Armenia followed at 12.93% ($787.17 million), and Kazakhstan took 11.55% ($703.18 million), rounding out a top three that made up 38.65% of total export value. Kyrgyzstan added 11.43% ($695.66 million), a share that sits almost as high as Kazakhstan's and reflects the same car re-export surge described above.

Russia contributed 10.80% ($657.02 million), still one of Georgia's largest trading partners despite the restrictions placed on direct vehicle re-exports. Russia bought about 66% of all Georgian wine exports from January through October 2023, worth roughly $144 million, making it by far the largest single market for Georgian wine. Wine, unlike vehicles, was never targeted by the sanctions restricting Georgia's car trade, so that channel has kept flowing largely undisturbed. Turkey added 6.73% ($409.44 million), and China contributed 5.11% ($310.89 million), both established trading partners with no obvious tie to either the car re-export trade or the wine business. Bulgaria took 4.11% ($249.96 million), Uzbekistan added 1.90% ($115.48 million), and Ukraine closed out the top ten at 1.66% ($101.15 million), a modest figure given the war being fought on Ukraine's own territory during this period.

A Steady Climb That Accelerated After 2021

Georgia's export total grew unevenly across the five-year window before settling into a steadier climb. It stood at $3.80 billion in 2019, then fell to $3.34 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted global trade. It rebounded to $4.24 billion in 2021, then jumped to $5.58 billion in 2022, a year that lines up closely with the start of Georgia's rapid rise as a used-car transit point following the outbreak of Russia's war in Ukraine.

The 2023 total of $6.09 billion, up 9.03% year over year, extends that climb at a steadier pace than the sharp 2022 jump. Vehicles are now worth well over a third of Georgia's export total, and that category is still expanding rapidly toward Central Asian buyers. Georgia's headline trade figures are likely to keep moving with the fortunes of the car re-export trade and the broader sanctions environment shaping it, at least as much as with anything happening inside Georgia's own domestic economy. A policy change in any of the countries now absorbing this trade, or a shift in how sanctions on Russia are enforced, could move Georgia's export total by a meaningful amount without any change in what the country itself actually produces.