That dollar amount reflects an 3.8% increase compared to $444.1 million five years earlier in 2019.
Year over year, the total value of Barbadian exports fell by -7.4% from $497.6 million for 2022.
Barbados’ Best Trade Customers
The latest available country-specific data shows that 57.4% of products exported from Barbados was bought by importers in: United States of America (16.4% of the Barbadian total), Jamaica (7.5%), Trinidad/Tobago (7.4%), Guyana (5.7%), Saint Lucia (4.2%), Canada (4.1%), St Vincent/Grenadines (2.8%), Grenada (2.3%), Antigua/Barbuda (2.2%), France (2.1%), United Kingdom (1.34%) and Dominica (1.31%).
From a continental perspective, 59.9% of Barbados exports by value was delivered to Latin America excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean countries while 30.7% was sold to importers located in North America. Barbados shipped another 7.4% worth of goods to Europe.
Smaller percentages went to Asia (1.9%), Oceania mostly Australia (0.05%) and Africa (0.03%).
Given Barbados’ population of 290,000 people, the total $461 million in 2023 Barbadian exports translates to nearly $1,600 for every person living on the Caribbean island. That dollar metric lags the average $1,700 per capita one year earlier in 2022.
Barbados’ Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Barbadian global shipments during 2023. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall Barbadian exports.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$171.2 million (37.1% of total exports)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $65.7 million (14.2%)
- Pharmaceuticals: $29.7 million (6.4%)
- Paper, paper items: $17.2 million (3.7%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $17.2 million (3.7%)
- Cereal/milk preparations: $15.6 million (3.4%)
- Gems, precious metals: $15.3 million (3.3%)
- Other chemical goods: $11.1 million (2.4%)
- Iron, steel: $9.8 million (2.1%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: $8.4 million (1.8%)
Barbados’ top 10 exports generated almost three-quarters (78.3%) of the overall value of its global shipments.
Pharmaceuticals represents the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 17.8% from 2022 to 2023.
In second place for improving export sales was animal or vegetable fats, oils and waxes via a 17.2% advance.
Barbados’s shipments of gems and precious metals posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 16.7%, propelled by greater sales of precious metal jewelry and diamonds.
The leading decliner among Barbados’s top 10 export categories was electrical machinery and equipment, thanks to its -36.1% year-over-year drop.
At the more detailed four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, the most valuable exported products from Barbados are refined petroleum oils (32.6%), alcohol including spirits and liqueurs (12.3%), medication mixes in dosage (6.1%), bread, biscuits, cakes and pastries (3.3%), margarine (3.2%), paper labels (2.8%), jewelry (2.6%), crude oil (2.3%), packaged insecticides, fungicides and herbicides (2.2%), then petroleum residues (2.1%).
Products Generating Best Trade Surpluses for Barbados
The following types of Barbadian 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.
- Gems, precious metals: US$14.3 million (Up by 19.6% since 2022)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $11.4 million (Up by 25.6%)
- Clocks, watches including parts: $6.8 million (Down by -17.2%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: $2.9 million (Reversing a -$3.2 million deficit)
- Live animals: $1.5 million (Up by 4.9%)
- Aircraft, spacecraft: $926,000 (Down by -30.2%)
- Woodpulp: $6,000 (Down by -62.5%)
Barbados has positive net exports in the international trade of gold and precious metal scrap. In turn, these cashflows indicate Barbados’ strong competitive advantages under the gems and precious metals product category.
Products Causing Worst Trade Deficits for Barbados
Overall, Barbados incurred a -US$1.66 billion product trade deficit for 2023, flatlining via a 0.4% rise from the -$1.65 billion in red ink one year earlier for 2022.
Below are exports from Barbados that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Barbados’ goods trail Barbadian importer spending on foreign products.
- Mineral fuels including oil: -US$334.5 million (Down by -7.5% since 2020)
- Machinery including computers: -$202.8 million (Up by 24.8%)
- Vehicles: -$126.9 million (Up by 43.3%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$125.7 million (Up by 1.9%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$63.2 million (Down by -26.3%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefabricated buildings: -$52.4 million (Up by 37.5%)
- Miscellaneous food preparations: -$46.2 million (Up by 2.8%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$42.1 million (Down by -0.3%)
- Meat: -$39.5 million (Down by -11.2%)
- Wood: -$36.5 million (Down by -16.6%)
Barbados has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for refined petroleum oils, petroleum gases and petroleum coke under the category named mineral fuels including oil.
Barbados’ Export Companies
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Barbados. Selected examples are shown below.
- Banks Barbados Brewery (alcoholic beverages)
- Barbados National Oil Company (oil and gas)
- Mount Gay Rum (alcoholic beverages)
- Solar Dynamics (solar heaters)
- West Indies Sugar & Trading Co (sugar)
- WIBISCO (biscuits, other food products)
In macroeconomic terms, Barbados’ total exported goods represent 8.2% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2023 ($5.6 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 8.2% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2023 exceeds the 9.9% percentage one year earlier. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Barbados’ total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Barbados’ unemployment rate averaged 8.538% for 2023, down from 8.467% one year earlier in 2022 according to International Monetary Fund metrics.
See also America’s Top Trading Partners, Jamaica’s Top 10 Exports, Guyana’s Top 10 Exports Plus Main Trading Partners, Trinidad and Tobago’s Top 10 Exports and Refined Oil Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, Country Profiles, The World Factbook. Accessed on September 9, 2024
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on September 9, 2024
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on September 9, 2024
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on September 9, 2024
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on September 9, 2024
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on September 9, 2024
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Barbados. Accessed on September 9, 2024
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on September 9, 2024