Kazakhstan's foreign trade turnover amounted to $103bn in January–August 2026, up 12.8% compared to the same period last year. Exports grew faster than imports, and the positive trade balance reached $17.8bn against $9.8bn a year earlier. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Over the eight months, Kazakhstan exported goods worth $60.4bn — 19.5% more than in the same period of 2025. Imports increased by 4.5% to $42.6bn. Thus, export growth rates exceeded import growth by more than four times.

Agricultural products

Supplies of agricultural raw materials and processed products grew noticeably. In particular, exports of sunflower oil increased by 48.5% to $672.8m. In physical terms, supplies rose by 35.9% to 611,400 tonnes.

At the end of 2025, Kazakhstan entered the top six global exporters of sunflower oil and ranked second among suppliers to China. In terms of sunflower meal exports, the country entered the top three largest suppliers to the European Union and China.

Wheat exports for January–August grew by 26.5% to $1.25bn. More than 5.5m tonnes were shipped abroad, 13.8% higher than last year's figure.

At the same time, exports of grain processing products increased. Supplies of wheat and wheat-rye flour reached $400m, adding 36%. In physical terms, exports grew by 22.8% to 1.38m tonnes.

Exports of flax seeds in monetary terms increased 2.3 times to $387.8m. The volume of supplies grew 2.5 times to 780,800 tonnes.

Supplies of finished animal feed products brought in $577.6m — 60.8% more than a year earlier. In physical terms, exports of this product increased by 44.2%.

In total, exports of sunflower oil, flour and finished feed reached $1.65bn. Supplies of these three categories in monetary terms grew by approximately 48%.

Metallurgy and mining

Growth was also recorded in metallurgy and the mining industry. Exports of copper and copper cathodes increased by 55.7% to $3.9bn, and uranium by 26.9% to $3.1bn.

Imports

In the import structure, purchases of industrial and energy equipment increased. Kazakhstan imported electric generating sets worth $916.5m — 86.5% more than a year earlier. Imports of turbojet and turboprop engines, as well as gas turbines, increased 3.3 times to $611m.

Trading partners

China remains Kazakhstan's largest trading partner. Trade turnover with it amounted to $23.3bn, or 22.7% of the country's total foreign trade. Russia ranked second with $18.3bn, and Italy third with $11.8bn. Together, these countries accounted for more than half of Kazakhstan's trade turnover.

At the same time, Italy became the largest buyer of Kazakh goods, receiving products worth $10.9bn. It slightly outpaced China with $10.7bn. Russia took first place among suppliers of goods to Kazakhstan: imports from this country amounted to $13.2bn.