Latvia Import Trade Data: $24.55B in 2023, Down 9.80%

Latvia Banned Russian Gas, So Lithuania Fills the Gap

Latvia imported $24.55 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 9.80% from $27.21 billion in 2022. Mineral fuels topped every import category at 11.94% of the total, worth $2.93 billion. Latvian law prohibits natural gas supplies from Russia, so gas now enters the country through connections with Lithuania and Estonia instead, with Latvia importing an estimated 786.5 million cubic meters of natural gas in 2023. That legal shift, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rerouted a major energy flow that once ran directly from Russia through regional pipeline connections instead. Latvia also relies increasingly on liquefied natural gas supply and regional underground storage facilities to smooth out the seasonal swings in demand that pipeline gas from a single nearby source used to absorb more easily.

Electrical machinery ranked second at 10.90% ($2.68 billion), and vehicles added 9.19% ($2.26 billion). Machinery and mechanical appliances contributed 8.84% ($2.17 billion), and pharmaceutical products supplied 4.01% ($984.81 million). Plastics added 3.58% ($878.48 million). Beverages, spirits and vinegar contributed 3.40% ($833.88 million), a category tied closely to Latvia's role as a distribution hub for Western spirits. Major producers register in Latvia and ship alcohol there before it moves onward to other markets, including Russia, a pattern that shows up on the export side of Latvia's trade as well. None of Latvia's other manufactured-goods imports approach the scale of vehicles, electrical machinery or fuel, but together they fill out a fairly typical profile for a small, open EU economy that produces relatively little heavy industry of its own.

Lithuania, Germany and Poland Supply Nearly Half of Latvia's Imports

Lithuania supplied 21.70% of Latvia's imports in 2023, worth $5.33 billion, more than any other single source. Germany ranked second at 11.51% ($2.82 billion), and Poland took 10.89% ($2.67 billion). Together, these top three sources made up 44.10% of total import value, nearly half of everything Latvia bought from abroad concentrated in just three neighboring economies. That level of concentration is typical for a small Baltic economy embedded deeply in EU supply chains, where physical proximity and shared customs rules make trading with next-door neighbors far cheaper than sourcing the same goods from further afield.

Estonia added 8.65% ($2.12 billion), rounding out a Baltic trio, Lithuania, Germany and Estonia, that together with Poland dominate this list. Finland contributed 4.67% ($1.15 billion), and Netherlands supplied 4.54% ($1.11 billion). China added 3.81% ($936.11 million), and Italy contributed 3.74% ($918.00 million). Sweden supplied 3.21% ($788.41 million). Latvia supplied three-quarters of the roughly $266 million worth of whisky Russia imported in the first nine months of 2023, even though Latvia produces none of it itself, since Western distillers use the country as a distribution hub rather than a manufacturing base. Russia closed out the top ten at 2.67% ($655.96 million), a smaller but still notable share given the broader sanctions environment.

Imports Pulled Back From a 2022 Peak

Latvia's import total climbed for three straight years before easing in 2023. It stood at $17.15 billion in 2019, then eased slightly to $17.03 billion in 2020 as the pandemic slowed global trade. It surged to $22.40 billion in 2021, then climbed further to $27.21 billion in 2022, the high point of this five-year stretch. The 2023 figure of $24.55 billion, down 9.80% year over year, gave back a meaningful share of that gain.

That 2022 peak lines up closely with the same global energy price spike that shaped economies across Europe that year, before prices cooled through 2023. Latvia's own shift away from Russian gas added another layer of disruption on top of that broader price cycle, forcing new supply routes into place just as global energy costs were already swinging sharply. Untangling exactly how much of the 2023 pullback reflects falling prices versus the completed transition away from Russian gas is difficult from the trade total alone, but both forces were clearly pulling in the same direction that year. Latvia's import total still sits well above where it stood before 2021, a reminder that the pullback looks more like a retreat from an unusually expensive year than any lasting decline in what the country actually buys from the rest of the world. A smaller economy that depends this heavily on its immediate neighbors for both energy and everyday manufactured goods will keep showing this kind of sensitivity to regional price and policy shifts for years to come.