Trade lanes

What Nicaragua buys, and from whom.

Nicaragua imported USD 8.7bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 1 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 2 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.

Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.

By source

The twenty countries Nicaragua imports most from.

A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Nicaragua is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Nicaragua.

  1. 1

    China

    Share of Nicaragua's imports19 per cent
    Changeup 20 per cent on 2022
    USD 1.6bnin 2024
  2. 2

    United States

    Share of Nicaragua's imports13 per cent
    Changeup 1 per cent on 2022
    USD 1.1bnin 2024
  3. 3

    Mexico

    Share of Nicaragua's imports11 per cent
    Changedown 1 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 952min 2024
  4. 4

    Guatemala

    Share of Nicaragua's imports11 per cent
    Changeup 5 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 947min 2024
  5. 5

    Costa Rica

    Share of Nicaragua's imports7 per cent
    Changeup 25 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 640min 2024
  6. 6

    Honduras

    Share of Nicaragua's imports7 per cent
    Changedown 37 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 608min 2024
  7. 7

    El Salvador

    Share of Nicaragua's imports6 per cent
    Changeup 20 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 486min 2024
  8. 8

    India

    Share of Nicaragua's imports4 per cent
    Changedown 34 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 330min 2024
  9. 9

    Japan

    Share of Nicaragua's imports3 per cent
    Changeup 39 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 226min 2024
  10. 10

    Argentina

    Share of Nicaragua's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 28 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 176min 2024
  11. 11

    South Korea

    Share of Nicaragua's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 6 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 147min 2024
  12. 12

    Germany

    Share of Nicaragua's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 35 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 131min 2024
  13. 13

    Brazil

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 5 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 104min 2024
  14. 14

    Russia

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 18 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 97min 2024
  15. 15

    Vietnam

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 56 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 89min 2024
  16. 16

    Thailand

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 62 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 88min 2024
  17. 17

    Spain

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 17 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 83min 2024
  18. 18

    Indonesia

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 77 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 78min 2024
  19. 19

    Colombia

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 38 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 72min 2024
  20. 20

    United Kingdom

    Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 59 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 58min 2024
What this record says

What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.

Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.

Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Nicaragua with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.

Share is China's part of everything Nicaragua imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.

Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.

What it does not say

A record of trade, not a shopping list.

What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.

Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.