That dollar amount reflects a 36.4% increase since 2017 when Belarusian exports totaled $29.24 billion.
Year over year, overall exports from Belarus accelerated by 36.7% from $29.18 billion during 2020.
The 5 biggest exports from Belarus in 2021 ranked in order of highest international sales were cheese and curd, sawn wood, miscellaneous furniture, bars and rods made from iron or non-alloy steel, then concentrated or sweetened milk and cream.
Biggest Belarusian Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data for 2021 shows that three-quarters (75.1%) of products exported from Belarus were bought by importers in: Russia (49.2% of the global total), Poland (5.6%), Ukraine (4.3%), Lithuania (4.2%), Germany (2.8%), Kazakhstan (2.7%), China (2%), Latvia (1.6%), Netherlands (1%), Uzbekistan (0.64%), Azerbaijan (0.61%) and United States of America (0.6%).
From a continental perspective, 88.5% of Belarusian exports by value were delivered to fellow European countries while 10% was sold to importers in Asia.
Belarus shipped another 0.8% worth of goods to North America. Even tinier percentages went to Africa (0.5%), Latin America (0.1%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.01%) mostly Australia and New Zealand.
Given the Belarusian population of 9.4 million people, its total $39.9 billion in 2021 exports translates to roughly $4,300 for every resident in the Eastern European country. That dollar metric greatly exceeded the average $2,300 per capita one year earlier during 2020.
Belarus Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Belarusian global shipments during 2021 at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Belarus.
- Dairy, eggs, honey: US$2.7 billion (6.8% of total exports)
- Wood: $2.3 billion (5.8%)
- Machinery including computers: $1.8 billion (4.6%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $1.4 billion (3.6%)
- Iron, steel: $1.3 billion (3.4%)
- Articles of iron or steel: $1.1 billion (2.8%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefabricated buildings: $1.04 billion (2.6%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $1 billion (2.5%)
- Meat: $960.5 million (2.4%)
- Vehicles: $901.6 million (2.3%)
The top 10 exports from Belarus approach two-thirds of the overall value of its global shipments.
Wood was the fastest grower among top 10 product categories for goods exported from Belarus, up by 54.6% from 2020 to 2021.
In second place for improving export sales were the materials iron and steel via a 53.5% gain.
Belarusian shipments of furniture, bedding, lighting, signs and prefabricated buildings posted the third-fastest gain in value via a 45.8% improvement.
The leading decliner among Belarus’s top 10 export categories were vehicles thanks to a -58.1% drop year over year.
Products Generating Biggest Trade Surpluses for Belarus
The following types of Belarusian 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.
- Dairy, eggs, honey: US$2.6 billion (Up by 12% since 2020)
- Wood: $2.1 billion (Up by 56%)
- Meat: $763.5 million (Up by 10.6%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefab buildings: $672.5 million (Up by 64.5%)
- Meat/seafood preparations: $404.2 million (Up by 26.3%)
- Railways, streetcars: $342.2 million (Up by 604.2%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $294.9 million (Up by 54.3%)
- Vegetables: $154.3 million (Up by 61.7%)
- Stone, plaster, cement, asbestos: $117.3 million (Up by 70.3%)
- Woodpulp: $115.6 million (Up by 30.4%)
Belarus has highly positive net exports in the international trade of cheese, milk or cream, and butter–but not natural honey. In turn, these cashflows indicate Belarus’s strong competitive advantages under the dairy, eggs and honey product category.
Products Causing Worst Trade Deficits for Belarus
Overall Belarus incurred a -$1.9 billion trade deficit during 2021, down by -46.4% from -$3.6 billion one year earlier.
Below are exports from Belarus that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Belarus goods trail Belarusian importer spending on foreign products.
- Machinery including computers: -US$1.6 billion (Down by -17.5% since 2020)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$1.5 billion (Up by 22%)
- Iron, steel: -$991.8 million (Up by 87.4%)
- Vehicles: -$906.6 million (Reversing a $310.2 million surplus)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$668.6 million (Down by -3.3%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$594.2 million (Up by 7%)
- Oil seeds: -$411.4 million (Up by 3.9%)
- Paper, paper items: -$344.1 million (Up by 15.4%)
- Fruits, nuts: -$315.5 million (Down by -16.1%)
- Fish: -$298.3 million (Up by 15.7%)
Belarus has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers product category.
These cashflow deficiencies clearly indicate Belarusian competitive disadvantages in the global machinery market, but also represent key opportunities for Belarus to improve its position in the global economy through focused innovations and trade alliances.
Belarusian Export Companies
Given that Belarus is an emerging economy, it should come as no surprise that no Belarusian corporation appears on the Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia does list Belarusian export companies. Selected examples are shown below.
- BelAZ (haulage, earth-moving equipment)
- Belkamunmash (electric public transport vehicles)
- Belshina (pneumatic tires)
- Beltransgaz (natural gas)
- Byelorussian Steel Works (steel)
- JSC Defense Systems (air defense manufacturer)
- Minsk Automobile Plant (automobiles)
- Minsk Motorcycle (motorcycles)
- Minsk Tractor Works (tractors)
- Olivaria (brewery)
- TransAVIAexport Airlines (cargo airline)
- Velcom (mobile phones)
In macroeconomic terms, Belarus’ total exported goods represent 19.7% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2021 ($202.8 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 19.7% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2021 compares to 12.9% for 2020. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Belarus’ total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Average unemployment in Belarus was 3.925% for 2021 down from an average 4.082% one year earlier in 2020, according to statistics from the International Monetary Fund.
Minsk is the capital city of Belarus.
See also Belarus Top Trading Partners, Russia’s Top 10 Imports, Ukraine’s Top 10 Imports, Russia’s Top 10 Exports, European Union’s Top Trading Partners
Research Sources:
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on June 9, 2022
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity)
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 9, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 9, 2022
Wikipedia, Belarus. Accessed on June 9, 2022
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on June 9, 2022
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Belarus. Accessed on June 9, 2022
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on June 9, 2022
