Turkmenistan is seeking to promote international cooperation and build contacts with foreign countries in various fields, including trade, economy and investment. The policy pursued by President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov enables the country to advance in these areas. An economic observer for Turkmenistan Valentin Trapeznikov commented on this issue in an interview with CentralAsia.news.
Turkmenistan demonstrated the good foreign trade indicators in the first half of 2024. In particular, foreign trade turnover exceeded $9.6 billion. In this period, exports stood at about $6.3 billion, and Turkmenistan’s trade surplus reached about $3 billion. The ratio of imports to exports was 1.9.
In recent years, positive changes have taken place in foreign trade. First of all, these are the structural change in exports to the world markets. In particular, through widening the range of exports, Turkmenistan decreased the share of some types of oil and gas products due to the growing share of other commodities in the total value of exports.
For example, the share of processed gas products in the total value of exports is growing. In 2021-2024, the share of gasoline converted from natural stood at 2-2.5 percent of the total value of Turkmenistan’s exports.
Another key oil and gas consuming industry is the power industry, the export value of which stood at 2.3-2.7 percent in the total value of exports in 2021-2024. Turkmenistan is increasing polypropylene exports to the foreign market. While its share in Turkmenistan’s exports is not high, its export value growth rate is impressive: 32.7 percent in 2023, and 2.3 times in the first half of 2024.
Along with the fuel and energy sector, the goods of the chemical and textile industries have significant shares in the total value of Turkmenistan’s exports. In 2021-2024, the share of fertilizer exports — the main product of the chemical industry — stood at 1.9-2.8 percent in the total value of Turkmenistan’s exports. in the specified period, the goods of the textile industry had an even higher share — 2.7-6.8 percent.
The food, furniture and footwear industries, as well as the companies operating in the building material industry are consistently enhancing their participation in foreign economic activity. These industries are increasing and expanding the geography of exports.
An illustrative example is the food industry, which saw high export value growth rates of confectionery products. In 2021-2024, confectionery exports rose 2.3-4 times. The agricultural sector is turning into a major exporter to the foreign markets, steadily increasing vegetable exports, in particular tomato exports. The share of tomatoes in the total value of Turkmenistan’s exports grew twice as much — from 0.8 percent in 2021 to 1.6 percent in 2024. Turkmenistan is increasing canned fruit and vegetable exports.
In 2021-2023, a slight increase in imports was observed annually. However, in the first half of 2024, it decreased by 8 percent compared to the same period a year ago. In the specified period, the import structure significantly changed due to the implementation of the import substitution programmes.
Turkmenistan cut its industrial and technical goods imports. In particular, these are stone, gypsum, cement, plastic and ceramic products, including bricks, among others. Consistent measures of import substitution made it possible to reduce the share of consumer goods imports. Their share in the total value of imports fell from 32.3 percent in 2022 to 27 percent in 2023 and 24.7 percent in 2024. The share of food products dropped from 16.1 percent to 11.3 percent, and non-food products — from 16.5 percent to 13.4 percent in the total imports.
Of its food products, Turkmenistan cut imports of sugar, dairy products, condensed milk, butter, some types of cheese, meat, canned meat, vegetables, including potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Turkmenistan’s imports for the above products and commodities were down due to the increase in domestic production, and this trend will continue to grow as the domestic economy diversifies.
Turkmenistan’s foreign trade demonstrates positive structural changes, improving its balance annually through analysing the global market situation, implementing import substitution programmes and building up the export potential of Turkmenistan’s economy.
