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.
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.
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1
China
Share of Nicaragua's imports19 per centChangeup 20 per cent on 2022USD 1.6bnin 2024 -
2
United States
Share of Nicaragua's imports13 per centChangeup 1 per cent on 2022USD 1.1bnin 2024 -
3
Mexico
Share of Nicaragua's imports11 per centChangedown 1 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 952min 2024 -
4
Guatemala
Share of Nicaragua's imports11 per centChangeup 5 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 947min 2024 -
5
Costa Rica
Share of Nicaragua's imports7 per centChangeup 25 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 640min 2024 -
6
Honduras
Share of Nicaragua's imports7 per centChangedown 37 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 608min 2024 -
7
El Salvador
Share of Nicaragua's imports6 per centChangeup 20 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 486min 2024 -
8
India
Share of Nicaragua's imports4 per centChangedown 34 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 330min 2024 -
9
Japan
Share of Nicaragua's imports3 per centChangeup 39 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 226min 2024 -
10
Argentina
Share of Nicaragua's imports2 per centChangeup 28 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 176min 2024 -
11
South Korea
Share of Nicaragua's imports2 per centChangeup 6 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 147min 2024 -
12
Germany
Share of Nicaragua's imports2 per centChangeup 35 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 131min 2024 -
13
Brazil
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangedown 5 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 104min 2024 -
14
Russia
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangeup 18 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 97min 2024 -
15
Vietnam
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangeup 56 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 89min 2024 -
16
Thailand
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangeup 62 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 88min 2024 -
17
Spain
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangedown 17 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 83min 2024 -
18
Indonesia
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangeup 77 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 78min 2024 -
19
Colombia
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangeup 38 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 72min 2024 -
20
United Kingdom
Share of Nicaragua's imports1 per centChangedown 59 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 58min 2024
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.
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.