In the first quarter of 2026, Kazakhstan’s foreign trade reached $32.9 billion, an increase of 10.5% compared to $29.8 billion in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Trade and Integration.
The growth confirms the increasing role of high value-added products in the country’s exports, which grew by 9.4% to $18 billion in January-March 2026.
Kazakhstan’s imports totaled $14.9 billion, an increase of 11.8% compared to the first quarter of 2025.
The growth in imports is primarily due to increased purchases of technological equipment for the modernization of the country’s industry, energy, and transport infrastructure, such as electricity generators (for $416.8 million), gas turbines, aircraft engines, petroleum products, railway locomotives, as well as equipment for processing and sorting raw materials.
In January-March 2026, Kazakhstan’s non-resource exports grew by 23.4%, to $6.9 billion. The main non-resource export items were copper and copper cathodes, silver, uranium, ferroalloys, animal feed, and sunflower oil. Notably, sunflower oil exports increased by almost 60%, reaching $277.8 million.
China was Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner in the first quarter, with a trade turnover of $7.8 billion or 23.8% of the total foreign trade. Russia was second with $6.5 billion, remaining a key market for imports and industrial cooperation. Kazakhstan’s trade with Italy exceeded $3.4 billion, with Kazakh exports exceeding $3 billion, followed by Turkey and Uzbekistan.
