That dollar amount reflects an 8.7% increase compared to $457.7 million during 2018.
Year over year, the total value of Barbadian exports accelerated by 42.1% from $350.2 million for 2021.
Barbados’ Best Trade Customers
The latest available country-specific data shows that 55.7% of products exported from Barbados were bought by importers in: United States (16.7% of the Barbadian global total), Jamaica (7.3%), Trinidad/Tobago (6.6%), Guyana (5.7%), Saint Lucia (4.2%), Canada (3.3%), Saint Vincent/Grenadines (2.8%), Grenada (2.3%), Antigua/Barbuda (2.1%), France (2%), Saint Kitts/Nevis (1.4%) and United Kingdom (1.2%).
From a continental perspective, 59.9% of Barbados exports by value was delivered to fellow countries in Latin America excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean countries. Another 31.6% was sold to North American importers, with 7.2% worth of goods to going to Europe.
Smaller percentages went to customers in Asia (1.1%), Africa (0.11%), then Oceania (0.07%) led by Australia and New Zealand.
Given Barbados’ population of 289,000 people, the total $497.6 million in 2022 Barbadian exports translates to some $1,700 for every person living on the Caribbean island. That dollar metric exceeds the average $1,200 per capita one year earlier in 2021.
Barbados’ Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Barbadian global shipments during 2022. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall Barbadian exports.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$200.1 million (40.2% of total exports)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $63.6 million (12.8%)
- Pharmaceuticals: $25.2 million (5.1%)
- Paper, paper items: $18.1 million (3.6%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $14.6 million (2.9%)
- Cereal/milk preparations: $14.5 million (2.9%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $13.22 million (2.7%)
- Other chemical goods: $13.16 million (2.6%)
- Gems, precious metals: $13.11 million (2.6%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $13.1 million (2.6%)
Barbados’ top 10 exports accounted for over three-quarters (78.1%) of the overall value of its global shipments.
Mineral fuels including oil was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 139.7% from 2021 to 2022.
In second place for improving export sales was electrical machinery and equipment via a 53% gain.
Barbados’ shipments of gems and precious metals posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 31.3%. That product category was propelled by higher international sales of jewelry from Barbados.
The leading decliner among Barbados’ top 10 export categories was salt, sulphur, stone and cement. That product category shrank -6.8% year over year.
At the more detailed four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, the most valuable exported products from Barbados are refined petroleum oils (35.3%), alcohol including spirits and liqueurs (11.1%), medication mixes in dosage (4.8%), paper labels (2.8%), bread, biscuits, cakes and pastries (also 2.8%), crude oil (2.7%), packaged insecticides, fungicides and herbicides (2.5%), margarine (also 2.5%), hydraulic cements (2.4%), then jewelry (2.3%).
Products Generating Best Trade Surpluses for Barbados
The following types of Barbadian product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Gems, precious metals: US$12 million (Up by 31.7% since 2021)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $9.1 million (Down by -52.9%)
- Clocks, watches including parts: $8.2 million (Up by 260.3%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $3.9 million (Down by -30%)
- Live animals: $1.4 million (Up by 35.4%)
- Aircraft, spacecraft: $1.3 million (Up by 120.4%)
- Woodpulp: $16,000 (Down by -15.8%)
Barbados has positive net exports in the international trade of gold and precious metal scrap. In turn, these cashflows indicate Barbados’ strong competitive advantages under the gems and precious metals product category.
Products Causing Worst Trade Deficits for Barbados
Overall, Barbados incurred a -$1.65 billion product trade deficit for 2022, expanding by 24.7% from the -$1.32 billion in red ink one year earlier for 2021.
Below are exports from Barbados that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Barbados’ goods trail Barbadian importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$361.8 million (Up by 39.3% since 2021)
- Machinery including computers: -$162.4 million (Down by -2.9%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$123.4 million (Up by 17.1%)
- Vehicles: -$88.6 million (Up by 10.4%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$85.8 million (Up by 32.2%)
- Miscellaneous food preparations: -$45 million (Up by 7.4%)
- Meat: -$44.5 million (Up by 39.5%)
- Wood: -$43.8 million (Up by 30.4%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$42.2 million (Up by 31.3%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$40.2 million (Up by 46.3%)
Barbados has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for refined petroleum oils, petroleum gases and petroleum coke under the category named mineral fuels including oil.
Barbados’ Export Companies
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Barbados. Selected examples are shown below.
- Banks Barbados Brewery (alcoholic beverages)
- Barbados National Oil Company (oil and gas)
- Mount Gay Rum (alcoholic beverages)
- Solar Dynamics (solar heaters)
- West Indies Sugar & Trading Co (sugar)
- WIBISCO (biscuits, other food products)
In macroeconomic terms, Barbados’ total exported goods represent 9.9% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2022 ($5.01 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 9.9% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2022 exceeds the 8.2% percentage one year earlier. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Barbados’ total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Barbados’ unemployment rate averaged 10.846% for 2022, down from 14.127% one year earlier in 2021 according to International Monetary Fund metrics.
See also America’s Top Trading Partners, Jamaica’s Top 10 Exports, Guyana’s Top 10 Exports Plus Main Trading Partners, Trinidad and Tobago’s Top 10 Exports and Refined Oil Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, Country Profiles, The World Factbook. Accessed on April 12, 2023
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on April 12, 2023
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on April 12, 2023
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on April 12, 2023
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on April 12, 2023
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on April 12, 2023
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Barbados. Accessed on April 12, 2023
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on April 12, 2023
