Armenia’s Export Markets: Russia Up, EU Down

The main export market for Armenia remains Russia. 

Over the years, this country's share of exports has increased. Instead, the European Union has been taking an increasingly smaller place. In the last three years, the United Arab Emirates has become one of the primary export markets. However, this speaks not of diversification, but of the effect of re-export.

Declining 2025

In 2025, Armenia traded with the world for $21.4 billion. It exported goods worth $8.4 billion and imported $13 billion. The country’s Statistical Committee published the data used in this article.

Compared to 2024, Armenia's exports decreased by 36.1%, and imports by 23.6%.

Prior to 2020, Armenia's exports and imports grew slowly. In 2015, Armenia joined the Eurasian Economic Union. According to the government, membership has contributed to this growth.

In 2020, against the backdrop of the spread of the coronavirus and the 44-day war in Artsakh, both the entire economy and the export of goods declined.

The next shock for the Armenian economy, as a positive factor, was the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022. Armenia’s exports and imports, which have become a transit country for trade between Russia and Western countries, peaked in 2024.

However, this dynamic was not maintained in 2025.

The EU’s share in Armenia’s exports is decreasing due to the increasing share of Russia and other countries

According to 2025 data, 38.4% of Armenia’s exports went to the EAEU countries, 7.9% to the EU countries, and 53.7% to other countries.

Over the past ten years, the EU’s share in Armenia’s export structure has decreased significantly. For comparison, ten years ago, the EU accounted for about 28% of exports. Over the years, the EAEU’s share has increased, and in the last three years, the share of other countries has increased sharply due to re-exports to the UAE.

Under the line "other countries" we must note the United Arab Emirates, as well as China. And other countries, such as Switzerland, Iraq, Georgia, are significantly inferior to them, as we will see in the next part of the article.

Armenia has not benefited from the EU's "GSP+" preferential trade system since 2022, because the World Bank now categorizes it as an upper-middle-income economy based on GDP per capita.  However, as can be seen in the infographic, even before that, the EU's share in Armenia's exports was decreasing.

When we consider exports to the EU not in terms of their share in the total, but in absolute terms, in 2017 they amounted to $629 million, in 2025 - $667 million. This means that it is not exports to the EU that have decreased many times over (except for 2020, when they dropped sharply), but exports to other countries have grown at a much faster pace and reduced the EU's share.

For comparison, exports to Russia in 2017 amounted to $557 million, in 2025 - $3 billion.

This picture immediately refutes the claims that Armenia’s export markets have diversified. On the contrary, they have become more concentrated.

“Outdated production practices negatively affect product quality and compliance with standards. Deviations from international labeling and packaging standards make exports difficult,” states the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan for Armenia’s Export, which the Government approved in July 2025.

It is also noted that because of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, transportation of goods to the EU through the territory of the Russian Federation and Belarus has become significantly complicated, even almost impossible.

Russia, UAE, China: Armenia’s main export markets

By country, Russia is Armenia’s largest export market in 2025. In the infographic published above, the EAEU should be understood primarily as Russia, since exports from Armenia to other EAEU countries - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan - are quite small.

In 2025, Armenia exported about $3 billion worth of goods to Russia, which decreased by 6.9% compared to the previous year. Thus, Russia's share in Armenia's exports is 35.3%. For comparison, in 2015 it was 16.5%.

 Russia's share in Armenia's exports increased sharply in 2022, when Armenia became a re-exporter of Western products to Russia, as Russia was under Western sanctions because of the war with Ukraine.

See: Armenia's Growing Re-exports: Gold, Diamonds, Mobile Phones Top the List

In other words, Armenia's exports, especially since 2022, have not only not been diversified, but the concentration of export markets has also deepened. This, in turn, increases Armenia's dependence on Russia.

See: Moscow Punishing Armenia Economically, Say Truckers Stuck at Lars Checkpoint

“Our largest taxpayer now is Mobile Centre, which means that now it is not meeting the demand of the Armenian population, but of a much wider range of people. Naturally, it is re-exporting. The volume of re-exports are decreasing, but it is not that the re-export of several goods will stop. This means that this sector will have a certain stable level, I do not observe a significant increase in the volumes of re-export,” former Armenian Deputy PM Vache Gabrielyan (Dean of the College of Business and Economics at the American University of Armenia) told Hetq in an interview,

According to 2025 data, the second largest export market for Armenia is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a specific weight of 24.5%. While exports from Armenia to Russia are diversified, exports to the Emirates are mainly based on gold.

We are talking about billions of dollars of gold, which Armenia has been importing from Russia since 2022 and re-exporting to the United Arab Emirates. In the context of this phenomenon, the role of the Emirates in Armenia's exports has grown exponentially and reached its peak in 2024 (40% share), significantly surpassing Russia. Prior to these re-exports, the UAE was of little interest in goods of Armenian origin.

Since the re-export of gold decreased in 2025, the UAE's share in Armenia's exports also decreased mechanically. In the mentioned year, about $2.1 billion worth of goods were exported from Armenia to the UAE, which decreased by 60.9% compared to the previous year.

See: Armenia: Re-exporting Billions of “Dirty” Russian Gold

Other countries to which Armenia exports goods are significantly inferior in their specific weight to Russia and the UAE.

 China, which is the third largest export market for Armenian goods, accounts for 9.1%, or $763 million.

 To say that Armenian goods are of interest to the Chinese market would again be an exaggeration. The UN World Trade Database shows that the main exported product is copper concentrate (annual data from the RA Customs Service have not yet been published). We wrote earlier that Switzerland has been excluded from the list of major buyers of copper concentrate exported from Armenia, and the weight of Bulgaria has decreased.

 There is a hypothesis that European countries that apply sanctions against Russia have almost stopped buying concentrate from ZPMC, which has Russian owners. Economists also consider it likely that China is offering a better price.

See: China Is Top Buyer of Armenia's Copper

Armenia also exports cigarettes and semi-manufactured or unmanufactured platinum to China, the volumes of which, however, are significantly inferior to copper.  

Next in Armenia's export structure are Iraq and Belarus, with much smaller specific weights.

Overall, the top ten export destinations are Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Georgia, and Germany, again with small volumes.

China remained on this list, whose weight did not fluctuate much.

Among European countries, the weight of Germany has decreased sharply. Previously, Armenia sold copper, ferromolybdenum, and aluminum foil to Germany. Today, it exports mainly aluminum foil and men's clothing. It is noteworthy that despite its small specific weight, in absolute terms, exports from Armenia to Germany increased by about 77% in 2025. It amounted to $112 million, which, although a small number in total exports, is still a visible increase.

Exports of precious stones and metals decreased by 64.5%

According to the enlarged product groups, precious and semi-precious stones and metals were the most exported from Armenia in 2025. Exports amounted to $2.8 billion, which decreased by 64.5% compared to 2024. Here again is the phenomenon of gold, the re-export of which decreased and was reflected even in industry.

This product group also includes diamonds and silver.

The next largest product group exported from Armenia, according to 2025 data, is machinery, equipment, and mechanisms. Exports amounted to $1.3 billion, which is almost unchanged compared to the previous year (-0.3%). This product group includes mobile phones, household appliances: heating boilers, refrigerators, televisions, as well as turbines, engines, pumps, etc. In other words, everything that is not produced in Armenia, therefore this is a re-export.

Ready-made food products increased by 28.7%, amounting to about US$1.3 billion. Ready-made food, according to enlarged groups, is the third most exported product. This group includes canned goods, sausages, caviar, confectionery, etc., as well as brandy, other alcoholic, and non-alcoholic beverages.

Exports of mining products increased by 18.9%, amounting to $1.3 billion. We are talking about copper concentrate, ferromolybdenum, precious metal concentrate, and other products.

The following product groups are several times smaller in volume. There is a significant decline in the export of automobiles among them.

In 2025, vehicles worth $91 million were exported from Armenia, which decreased by 35.2% compared to the previous year.

Instead, exports of devices and apparatus (optical, photographic, medical, etc.) increased by 44.1%, amounting to $215 million.

It is noteworthy that until 2021, mining was the largest group of exports. Since 2022, the export structure has changed significantly, again due to re-exports.

Armenia’s Ministry of Economy claims that despite the overall decline in exports, only exports of Armenian origin increased in 2025. According to the Ministry's calculations, it amounted to $4.5 billion, an increase of about 10% compared to the previous year. When the country’s Customs Service publishes exports of individual products, it will become clearer which products are involved.

(This article, in Armenian, originally appeared on February 13, 2026)

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