According to the State Statistics Committee (SSC), total trade turnover during 2010 was valued at US$3.9bn and grew by 7.6% year on year. Total exports reached US$1.2bn, an increase of 18.3% year on year, and imports reached a total of US$2.7bn, a rise of 3.5% from 2009. The trade deficit of US$1.5bn was 6.2% smaller than in 2009. The contraction of the trade deficit was largely owing to a rise in global prices for Tajikistan's key export commodities of cotton and aluminium, which together constituted 80% of total exports for the year. Aluminium exports soared by 25.3% in 2010, to US$756.7m, and imports of alumina (the raw material for the production of aluminium) grew by 9.9%, to US$318.7m. Cotton fibre exports accounted for more than 15% of export revenue and registered a rise of 9.9% in 2010, to US$199.9m. Cotton was mostly shipped to Turkey, Iran and Russia.

According to the first deputy head of the State Customs Service, Nemat Rahmatov, despite the growth in trade in 2010, the overall volume still failed to match the level before the global crisis. Mr Rahmatov attributed the lower level of foreign trade to the negative consequences of the global financial crisis, the temporary blockade of Tajik rail freight imposed by Uzbekistan, and the highly unstable situation in the neighbouring Kyrgyz Republic in 2010.