Tomato exports from Turkiye in the January-September period of this year exceeded the exports of the whole of last year and reached $381 million 354 thousand.
According to the information compiled from the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters’ Association (GAIB) data, $377 million 418 thousand of income was obtained from tomato exports from Turkiye to 54 countries in 2022.
In the 9-month period of this year, tomatoes worth $381 million 354 thousand were exported.
During this period, 423 thousand 321 tons of tomatoes were exported to 51 countries, including Bulgaria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Seychelles, Denmark, Spain, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Estonia and France.
Romania was among the countries to which Turkiye exported the most tomatoes. Turkiye exported tomatoes worth $66 million 443 thousand to Romania in 9 months of the year. Romania was followed by Ukraine with $52 million 19 thousand, Poland with $38 million 959 thousand, Germany with $35 million 933 thousand and Russia with $29 million 806 thousand.
“Our goal to open up to new markets continues”
Halil Pekdemir, President of the Greenhouse Investors and Producers Association, said that the great increase in tomato exports in the first 9 months of the year was pleasing.
Stating that the increase in market diversity has a great impact on the increase in tomato exports in Turkiye, Pekdemir said:
“It is a pleasing and important development for our country that Turkiye has left the whole of 2022 behind with a large increase in tomato exports of $381 million 354 thousand in the first 9 months of 2023. This great increase in tomato exports will also make significant contributions to the development of the greenhouse sector. With the further growth of the sector, the employment rate will increase and significant foreign exchange inflow will be provided to the country’s economy. We expect these export figures to rise even higher by the end of the year.”
Pekdemir stated that the contribution of the government’s loan support to those who want to establish greenhouses to increase production to the development of the sector is reflected in the export figures, and stated that they aim to come first in Europe in greenhouse production.
Emphasizing that they are trying to constantly increase export figures, Pekdemir said:
“When we look at the countries to which Turkiye exports, we see that the market network has increased compared to previous years. Our goals of opening up to new markets and being present there consistently continue. We think that we will increase our export figures every year with our increasing greenhouses and production amount. In addition, Russia’s increase in tomato import quota from Turkiye from 350 thousand tons to 500 thousand tons was a positive development for us. We believe that increasing export figures will be an important development for our country’s economy.”
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz