Arms exports from BiH fell drastically in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2025.
In this way, the excellent results that the domestic dedicated industry has been recording in foreign markets for years have been stopped.
What the data shows
The Chamber of Foreign Trade of BiH confirmed for “Nezavisne Novine” that the export of weapons and ammunition, as well as their parts and accessories, in the first three months of 2025 amounted to 136,915,504 KM, and the export of explosives and related products 33,382,771 marks, which is a total of about 170.3 million KM.
In the same period of this year, the export of weapons and ammunition, as well as their parts and accessories, amounted to 59,701,412 KM, and explosives and related products to 28,077,175 KM, so the total is about 87.8 million marks.
Czech Republic, Poland, Iraq…
It is interesting that in the first three months of 2025, we exported the most weapons and ammunition to the USA (47,368,037 KM). In 2026, the USA is not even in the top 10 countries to which we exported weapons, and the Czech Republic was in the first position (30,308,958 KM). This year, Poland was in second place, and Iraq was in third place.
From the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, they state that the foreign trade exchange of dedicated industry of BiH from 2013 to 2025 shows a pronounced long-term upward trend, with a strong acceleration after 2021.
“In that period, exports increased almost eight times, from 81.2 million KM in 2013 to more than 622.6 million KM in 2025,” said the Chamber of Foreign Trade of BiH.
A flexible supplier
This dynamic, as they emphasized, clearly indicates that the dedicated industry is no longer a marginal industrial segment, but one of the fastest growing export-oriented sectors in BiH.
“It is particularly significant that the growth in exports is not accompanied by a proportional growth in imports,” the Chamber of Foreign Trade of BiH said earlier.
As they stated, the dedicated industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina has positioned itself as a flexible and competitive supplier, capable of responding quickly to increased demand.
“More than 70 percent of total exports refer to bombs, grenades, mines, rockets and similar military ammunition, which confirms that the backbone of the sector is based on the mass production of ammunition and explosives. An additional 20 percent of exports are made of slow-burning and detonating sticks, which makes a total of more than 90 percent of exports fall on products that are used as consumables in military and security operations,” the Chamber of Foreign Trade of BiH said earlier.
Final products
However, the export of final military weapons and weapon parts participates with a relatively modest share, which indicates that the domestic industry is primarily positioned as a specialized producer of ammunition and explosive components, and not as a producer of complex combat systems.
“This kind of structure has certain advantages in terms of production speed and market demand, but in the long term it also carries the risks of high dependence on one production segment”, stated the Chamber of Foreign Trade of BiH.
When it comes to the structure of imports of the dedicated industry in 2025, it clearly shows that imports are dominantly related to critical raw materials and specialized parts, and not to final products that would compete with domestic production.
“The largest part of imports is made up of gunpowder and prepared explosives, which together account for more than 55 percent of total imports,” stated the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
