Add an 'Export as csv' admin action to your Django model admin page

gistfile1.py

import csv

from django.http import HttpResponse

# also include UnicodeWriter from the Python docs http://docs.python.org/library/csv.html


class ExportModel(object):

    @staticmethod
    def as_csv(meta):
        """
        :param meta: (dict) keys should be
        'file' (string: absolute path),
        'queryset' a Django QuerySet instance,
        'fields' a list or tuple of field model field names (strings)

        meta = {
            'file': '/tmp/products.csv',
            'class': Product,
            'fields': ('name',)
        }

        :returns (string) path to file
        """

        with open(meta['file'], 'w+') as f:
            writer = UnicodeWriter(f, encoding='utf-8')
            writer.writerow( meta['fields'] )
            for obj in meta['queryset']:
                row = [unicode(getattr(obj, field)) for field in meta['fields']]
                writer.writerow(row)
            path = f.name
        return path


def get_model_as_csv_file_response(meta, content_type):
    """
    Call this function from your model admin
    """
    with open(ExportModel.as_csv(meta), 'r') as f:
        response = HttpResponse(f.read(), content_type=content_type)
        response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename=%s' % f.name.split('/')[-1:][0]
    return response


"""
...and then in your app's admin.py
"""
from django.contrib import admin
from myapp import models

def export_products(self, request, queryset):
    meta = {
            'file': '/tmp/products.csv',
            'queryset': queryset,
            'fields': ('name',)
        }
    return get_model_as_csv_file_response(meta, content_type='text/csv')
export_products.short_description = 'Export as csv'

class ProductAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    actions = [export_products]

admin.site.register(models.Product, ProductAdmin)