ANKARA (AA) – This August Turkey’s exports saw their largest annual increase in the last two-and-a-half-years, the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM) said on Thursday.
The value of Turkey’s exports rose 6.9 percent in August to $11.15 billion compared to the same period last year, the largest increase in terms of monthly export value in the last 28 months, said a TIM report.
At a press conference in the Black Sea province of Giresun, TIM head Mehmet Buyukeksi said, “We are proud to see that our exports are growing despite everything.”
“We believe that the country’s exports, especially to North America and the EU countries, will show bigger rises in the days to come,” he added.
Touting Giresun’s world-famous hazelnuts, Buyukeksi boasted that Turkey provides around 75 percent of the world’s total hazelnut production.
Yet Turkey’s share of international trade overall is 0.89 percent, he noted, adding, “We have to export high value-added products in order to get a greater share of the world trade,” alongside traditional products such as hazelnuts.
TIM data show that Turkey’s exports in the first eight months of this year came in at $92.7 billion, down 3.1 percent compared to the same period of 2015.
The numbers showed that Turkish exporters sent more goods abroad in August, as the quantity of Turkey’s exports rose steeply by 29.8 percent compared to the same month in 2015 and advanced 7.8 percent in the first eight months of this year from a year earlier, though the increase in value was relatively modest.
The Turkish automotive industry, again, was the best-performing sector with exports worth $1.7 billion in August, up 23.4 percent compared to the same month last year.
Other prominent exporting sectors were the ready-made textiles sector with $1.6 billion, followed by the chemical materials and products sector with $1.2 billion, according to TIM figures.
The highest increase among agricultural sectors was seen in the olive and olive oil sectors, with a 36.4 percent rise in August.
Turkey’s exports to Germany rose 17.4 percent, while exports to the U.K. fell 1.4 percent, exports to Iraq fell 4.2 percent, exports to the U.S. rose 19.6 percent, and exports to France rose 8.3 percent. These countries were the largest export markets for Turkish products in August.
According to TIM data, Turkey’s exports to the EU, the country’s main trading partner, rose 12.7 percent, while exports to Pacific Oceania countries jumped sharply by 48.9 percent in August compared to the same month last year.
