UN Comtrade Trade Data Scraper

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Source verified India trade buyers and suppliers from official UN Comtrade data: HS codes, bilateral trade volumes, country-pair flows — for B2B trade & sourcing teams.

Find verified India importers and exporters

Bilateral trade flows from UN Comtrade — the official source behind every paid trade-intelligence product on the market. Filter by reporter country, partner, HS code, and year to find which countries India imports from and exports to in your category, and at what volumes. The starting point for any India-focused trade or sourcing pipeline.

HS code trade data for B2B sourcing

Drill from 2-digit HS chapters down to 4-digit headings and 6-digit subheadings to find exactly the product flows you care about. Pair with IndiaMart and GST verification to go from "India imports $4.2B of HS 8517 from China" to a vetted supplier shortlist.

Free alternative to Panjiva and ImportGenius

Panjiva, ImportGenius, Volza, and Export Genius all charge $5K-$50K/year — and most license the same UN Comtrade dataset upstream. This actor goes straight to the official source at ~$0.001/record with no contract, no seat licensing, and machine-readable JSON out of the box.

What you get

Structured bilateral trade records from the UN Comtrade database — the world's most comprehensive international trade dataset. Query import or export flows between any two of 200+ countries, at any HS code level (2-digit chapter, 4-digit heading, or 6-digit subheading), across annual or monthly periods. Every record includes trade value in USD, net weight, quantity, and a human-readable commodity description.

Output fields

Field	Description
reporter_country	Reporting country
partner_country	Partner country
flow	import or export
hs_code	HS commodity code
hs_description	Product description
trade_value_usd	Trade value in USD
cif_value_usd	CIF value in USD (imports)
fob_value_usd	FOB value in USD (exports)
net_weight_kg	Net weight in kg
quantity	Quantity traded
quantity_unit	Unit of quantity (kg, units, etc.)
unit_price_usd	Derived unit price (trade value / quantity)
year	Reference year
period	Reference period (YYYY or YYYYMM)

Example output

{
    "reporter_country": "India",
    "partner_country": "China",
    "flow": "import",
    "hs_code": "8517",
    "hs_description": "Telephone sets and other apparatus for transmission of voice, images or data",
    "trade_value_usd": 4200000000,
    "cif_value_usd": 4200000000,
    "net_weight_kg": 85000000,
    "quantity": 85000000,
    "quantity_unit": "kg",
    "unit_price_usd": 49.41,
    "year": 2023,
    "period": "2023"
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
reporterCountry	No	The reporting country. One of India, China, USA, UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia. Default India.
partnerCountry	No	The trade partner country. Same list as reporterCountry. Default China.
hsCode	No	HS code filter. Use 2-digit chapter (e.g., 85 for electronics), 4-digit heading (e.g., 8517 for telecom equipment), or 6-digit subheading. Leave empty for all chapters.
flow	No	imports (goods into reporter from partner) or exports (goods out of reporter to partner). Default imports.
years	No	Single year ("2023") or comma-separated years for trends ("2020,2021,2022,2023"). Default "2023".
frequency	No	annual for yearly totals or monthly for per-month breakdowns. Default annual.
maxResults	No	Maximum records to return, sorted by trade value descending (top categories first). Default 25.

Use cases

• B2B exporters finding India buyers by HS code: Identify which countries India imports your category from and at what volume — then build a country-pair targeting plan.
• Sourcing teams finding verified Indian suppliers: Use trade flows to find established export categories, then drill down via IndiaMart + GST verification.
• Trade financing / fintech screening trade flows: Underwrite invoices and trade-credit lines using bilateral volumes as base-rate context.
• Government / policy researchers: Analyze trade imbalances, tariff impacts, and commodity concentration with the official dataset.
• Trade analysts: Track bilateral trade flows and year-over-year trends across commodity categories.
• Economists: Research international trade patterns and commodity dependence.
• Business strategists: Identify export opportunities and import substitution targets.
• Supply chain teams: Benchmark bilateral volumes for sourcing decisions.

Use cases & recipes

Step-by-step guides on thirdwatch.dev/blog:

• Build a Supply Chain Risk Dashboard from Trade Flows (2026)
• Find Emerging Import-Export Categories with UN Comtrade (2026)
• Research Tariff Impact with Bilateral Trade Data (2026)
• Track India-China Trade Flows with UN Comtrade Data (2026)

-end

Pricing

Pay-per-result pricing. Tiered discounts apply automatically based on usage volume.

Tier	Price per result
FREE	$0.0015
BRONZE	$0.00125
SILVER	$0.001
GOLD	$0.00085

Limitations

• UN Comtrade data typically lags 1-2 years — the most recent complete year of annual data is usually published 12-18 months after year-end.
• Some country-commodity pairs report sparsely or not at all, depending on the reporter's customs coverage.
• HS code granularity varies by reporter — not every country reports at the 6-digit level.
• Monthly data is not available for every reporter; annual coverage is broader.
• The enumerated country list covers the top 20 reporters. For other countries, pass a numeric M49 code directly.

Compared to alternatives

• vs. UN Comtrade web portal: This actor returns machine-readable JSON you can pipe into dashboards, models, and pipelines. No manual CSV export per query.
• vs. Panjiva ($25K+/yr), ImportGenius, Volza, Export Genius: All license UN Comtrade upstream and resell it with a UI markup. Thirdwatch uses the same official source — free upstream, ~$0.001/record, no enterprise contract, no per-seat fees.
• vs. Apify Store alternatives: No other maintained UN Comtrade scraper on the Apify Store — this is the only production-grade option.

Pairs well with GST Verification India and IndiaMart Scraper for full India trade-and-supplier intelligence.

FAQ

How fresh is the data? Annual data typically lags 1-2 years. Monthly data lags a few months but coverage is thinner.

Can I query more than two countries at once? Each run covers one reporter × partner pair. Chain runs together to build multi-country matrices.

What HS code granularity is best? 2-digit gives the biggest categories with the densest coverage. 4-digit is the sweet spot for product-level analysis. 6-digit is most granular but sparser for smaller reporters.

Do I need an API key? No. UN Comtrade's public preview endpoint is used and requires no authentication.

Can I get monthly breakdowns? Yes — set frequency: "monthly". Coverage is thinner than annual.

Last verified: 2026-05

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