diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py
index 7f56a30172..54c2d7164f 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 )
 from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import ReadableSpan, Span, SpanProcessor
 from opentelemetry.util._once import Once
+from opentelemetry.metrics import Meter
 
 _DEFAULT_SCHEDULE_DELAY_MILLIS = 5000
 _DEFAULT_MAX_EXPORT_BATCH_SIZE = 512
@@ -198,6 +199,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.done = False
         # flag that indicates that spans are being dropped
         self._spans_dropped = False
+        self._dropped_spans_counter = None
         # precallocated list to send spans to exporter
         self.spans_list = [
             None
@@ -228,7 +230,10 @@ def on_end(self, span: ReadableSpan) -> None:
             if not self._spans_dropped:
                 logger.warning("Queue is full, likely spans will be dropped.")
                 self._spans_dropped = True
-
+                self._dropped_spans_counter = Meter.create_counter(
+                    name="dropped_spans_counter", description="Dropped Spans counter"
+                )
+            self._dropped_spans_counter.add(1)
         self.queue.appendleft(span)
 
         if len(self.queue) >= self.max_export_batch_size: