That dollar amount reflects a 20.5% increase compared to $350.1 million five years earlier in 2021.
Year over year, the total value of Barbadian exports fell by -8.7% from $461.3 million for 2024.
Barbados’ Best Trade Customers
The latest available country-specific data shows that 60.2% of products exported from Barbados was bought by importers in: United States of America (16.3% of the Barbadian total), Jamaica (7.7%), Trinidad and Tobago (5.9%), Canada (4.8%), Saint Lucia (4.7%), Guyana (4.4%), France (3.6%), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (3.3%), Antigua and Barbuda (3%), Grenada (2.6%), United Kingdom (1.97%) and Dominica (1.88%).
From a continental perspective, 57.6% of Barbados exports by value was delivered to Latin America excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean countries while 30% was sold to North American importers.
Barbados shipped another 9.8% worth of goods to buyers in Europe.
Tiny percentages went to customers in Asia (2.5%), Africa (0.03%) then Oceania’s Australia, New Zealand and French Polynesia (also 0.03%).
Given Barbados’ population of 292,000 people, the total US$421.1 million in 2025 Barbadian exports translates to about $1,450 for every person living on the Caribbean island. That dollar metric lags the average $1,600 per capita one year earlier in 2024.
Barbados’ Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Barbadian global shipments during 2025. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall Barbadian exports.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$132.9 million (31.6% of total exports)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $53.8 million (12.8%)
- Pharmaceuticals: $30.7 million (7.3%)
- Cereal/milk preparations: $18 million (4.3%)
- Gems, precious metals: $17.4 million (4.1%)
- Paper, paper items: $16.5 million (3.9%)
- Iron, steel: $14.2 million (3.4%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $12.8 million (3%)
- Other chemical goods: $12.3 million (2.9%)
- Machinery including computers: $9.3 million (2.2%)
Barbados’ top 10 exports generated just over three-quarters (75.5%) of the overall value of its global shipments.
Machinery including computers represents the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 49.8% from 2024 to 2025.
In second place for improving export sales was gems and precious metals via a 34.8% advance.
Barbados’ shipments of the metals iron and steel posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 14.5%.
The leading decliner among Barbados’ top 10 export categories was animal or vegetable fats, oils and waxes, thanks to a -24.9% year over year drop.
At the more detailed four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, the most valuable exported products from Barbados are refined petroleum oils (29%), alcohol including spirits and liqueurs (10.7%), medication mixes in dosage (6.8%), bread, biscuits, cakes and pastries (4%), jewelry (3.5%), iron or steel scrap (3.3%), paper labels (2.7%), packaged insecticides, fungicides and herbicides (also 2.7%), margarine (2.6%), then miscellaneous food preparations (1.5%).
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$15.9 million (Up by 35.9% since 2024)
- Clocks, watches including parts: $4.6 million (Down by -3.7%)
- Copper: $1.3 million (Reversing a -$591,000 deficit)
- Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $209,000 (Reversing a -$97,000 deficit)
- Woodpulp: $19,000 (Up by 72.7%)
- Live animals: $9,000 (Down by -99.6%)
Historically, Barbados has generated 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 -US$1.85 billion product trade deficit for 2025, expanding by 9.6% from the -$1.69 billion in red ink one year earlier for 2024.
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.
- Machinery including computers: -US$262.5 million (Up by 37% since 2024)
- Mineral fuels including oil: -$231.4 million (Down by -25.8%)
- Vehicles: -$205.4 million (Up by 42.7%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$126 million (Down by -1.1%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$77 million (Up by 10.9%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefab buildings: -$76.7 million (Up by 35.7%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$53.3 million (Up by 24.8%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$50.4 million (Up by 39%)
- Meat: -$49.7 million (Up by 24%)
- Miscellaneous food preparations: -$41.8 million (Down by -8.1%)
Barbados has notably negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for machinery including computers and mineral fuels including oil (particularly refined petroleum oils, petroleum gases and petroleum coke) under the related product categories.
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 6.2% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2025 ($6.8 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 6.2% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2025 lags the 7.2% percentage one year earlier. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing 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 7.824 % for 2025, down from 7.913% one year earlier in 2024 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 May 7, 2026
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on May 7, 2026
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on May 7, 2026
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on May 7, 2026
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on May 7, 2026
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on May 7, 2026
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Barbados. Accessed on May 7, 2026
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on May 7, 2026