Azerbaijan increases non-oil exports in 1Q2021

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased the volume of its non-oil exports by $70.6 million or 16.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021, the Centre for Economic Reforms Analysis and Communication of Azerbaijan reported in its April export review.

In the first three months of the year, the volume of Azerbaijan’s exports amounted to $4.1 billion, including $501.5 million in the non-oil sector.

The share of the non-oil sector in Azerbaijan's exports increased by 2 percent compared to the same quarter of last year and accounted to 12.1 percent.

In the list of non-oil exports, cotton yarn ranked first, followed by gold and persimmons.

During the reported period, non-oil goods worth $163.1 million were exported to Turkey, $129.8 million to Russia, $44.7 million to Switzerland, $38 million to Georgia and $18.3 million to the U.S.

In March 2021, exports in the non-oil sector amounted to $170 million. The top three countries in terms of non-oil products export in March were Turkey with $56.2 million, Russia with $44.3 million and Georgia with $9.7 million. In addition, cotton yarn ranked first in the non-oil sector export in the reported month with $31.4 million, followed by other substances in primary form resulting from polymerization with $13.7 million and refined hazelnut with $9.7 million.

Moreover, in the first three months of the year, exports of fruits and vegetables amounted to $97.2 million, cotton fibre to $69 million, aluminium and aluminium products to $42.4 million, ferrous metals and their products to $22.2 million, cotton yarn to $10.3 million, chemical products to $9 million, sugar to $8 million, oil to $8.4 million, alcoholic and soft drinks to $3.4 million, and tea to $2 million.

Non-oil exports of transportation services amounted to $1.3 billion in 2020. This included $1.1 billion for freight, $36.3 million for passenger transportation, and $118.3 million for other transportation services. Travel services amounted to $47.4 million, construction services to $28.9 million, financial services to $9 million and other business services to $542 million.

Furthermore, the review notes that the volume of transactions carried out by foreigners on bank cards in Azerbaijan amounted to AZN 83.9 million ($49.3M) in January-March. In addition, some 117,200 foreigners and stateless persons from 128 countries visited Azerbaijan during the first three months of the year, which is by 4.4 times less than during the same period of 2020.

The export review also provided information about export orders received by Azexport.az portal in March 2021. Thus, the portal received orders in the amount of $42 million. In addition, in January-March 2021 Azexport.az received export orders for $131.2 million. It should be noted that from January 2017 to March 31, 2021, the portal received export orders worth $2.3 billion from 145 countries.

Additionally, the value of the non-oil exports through the Single Window Export Support Centre in April this year amounted to $17.1 million. From 2017 to April 2021, the value of goods and products exported through the Single Window Export Support Centre was $537.7 million.

The export review aims to familiarize entrepreneurs with export issues, expand opportunities for exporting local goods to traditional and new markets and accelerate the process of integration into international markets.