UAE is Oman’s top trading partner

The UAE was Oman’s largest trading partner in the first nine months of 2025 with bilateral commerce rising 9 percent year on year to $10.4 billion, despite an overall drop in Oman’s international trade.

The two countries mainly exchanged electrical materials, machinery, food, minerals and chemicals between January and September, according to Oman’s National Center for Statistical Information.

“We expect trade between the two countries to go up significantly once the new railway project from Oman to the UAE is completed,” Oman Television quoted Said Al Saqri, the sultanate’s economy minister, as saying. 

Work has started on the $3 billion Hafeet railway that will run from the northern Omani city of Sohar to the UAE town of Al Ain. Once completed, the project is expected to halve the journey time between the two countries. 

AGBI reported last month that property developers are rapidly acquiring land along the route of the Oman-UAE railway as work on the cross-border network advances.

Further reading:

• Oman economy in numbers
• Oman’s market cap rises as trading volumes surge
• Oman to develop free-zone projects worth $2.5bn

Oman’s foreign trade in the first nine months of 2025 fell 2 percent year on year to $79 billion, hit by a 16.5 percent drop in oil and gas exports. 

Oman’s non-oil exports include minerals, chemicals, fish, live animals and agricultural products. 

The other trading partners of Oman include Saudi Arabia, China, South Korea, India and the UK.