Ukraine's foreign trade deficit reached $39.7 billion in the first eight months of 2026. This was reported by the Ukrainian edition of Forbes, which explained that the slowdown in export growth is associated with the blockade of the ports of Greater Odessa.
Imports increased by nearly 26% year-on-year during this period, while exports increased by only 1.1%, the publication notes. Imports amounted to $66.3 billion, and exports - to $26.6 billion. The bulk of imported goods consists of machinery, equipment, vehicles, as well as fuels, energy and chemical products. Food products, metals and metal products form the core of the country's exports.
Meanwhile, in August, exports decreased by 19.4% compared to July due to the inactivity of the ports of Greater Odessa (Odessa, Izmail and Yuzhny), which processed the main flow of Ukrainian grain and metallurgical products. In August, Ukraine imported goods worth $8.2 billion and exported goods worth $2.5 billion.
The publication notes that Ukraine exported 981,000 tons of grain in August - 2.5 times less than in August of the previous year. Although the volume of grain transported by rail to the Danube ports almost tripled in August compared to July, their throughput capacity was insufficient to compensate for the losses of the ports of Greater Odessa; grain shipments to the latter fell by 94.9% in the same month.
For the whole of 2024, the country's foreign trade deficit was $29.1 billion, a record high at the time. In the following year - 2025 - however, this figure exceeded $44 billion.