The Federation of Food Associations of Turkey (TGDF) evaluated the sectoral data of TurkStat for October and January-October periods. Foreign trade surplus in agriculture, food and beverages in the first 10 months of the year declined according to the previous year.
In 10 months, exports increased by 5.64 percent to USD 21.2 billion, imports increased by 7.43 percent to USD 18.26 billion and a foreign trade surplus of USD 3.03 billion was realized. Foreign trade surplus was USD 3.12 billion dollars in the same period last year.
In October, exports increased by 14.49 percent to USD 2.57 billion, imports decreased by 7.73 percent to USD 1.41 billion, while the sectoral foreign trade surplus was USD 1.1 billion.
Cattle imports increased by 961 percent in October, as in the last three months, and reached USD 154.1 million, while 10-month imports in this item reached USD 859.6 million. The highest imports were made from Brazil with USD 67.3 million, Uruguay with USD 34.7 million and Czechia with USD 11.5 million.
In the January-October period, flour exports ranked first with USD 1 billion 237 million, followed by refined sunflower oil with USD 800.8 million and hazelnuts with USD 728.2 million.
In the same period, wheat worth USD 2 billion 989 million, soybeans worth USD 1 billion 521 million and crude sunflower oil worth USD 1 billion 173 million were imported.
In 10 months of this year, when foreign trade data were evaluated on a country basis, the highest exports were made to Iraq with USD 2 billion 564 million. After Iraq, the highest exports were made to Germany with USD 1 billion 524 million, to Russia with USD 1 billion 424 million, to the USA with USD 1 billion 295 million and to Italy with USD 976 million.
Turkey exported flour, frozen chicken meat and red lentils to Iraq; packaged hazelnuts, hazelnut kernels and cherries to Germany; and trout, peaches and tangerines to Russia.
In the same period, the highest imports were made from Russia with USD 4 billion 365 million. This country was followed by Ukraine with USD 2 billion 526 million, Brazil with USD 1 billion 698 million, the USA with USD 832 million and Malaysia with USD 829 million.
Turkey imported wheat, corn grain and crude sunflower from Russia; wheat, crude sunflower oil and soybeans from Ukraine; and soybeans, cattle and coffee from Brazil.
In January-October period, wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine amounted to USD 2 billion 234 million and USD 711.4 million, respectively. Brazil ranked first in soybean imports with USD 936.6 million, while Ukraine ranked first in sunflower oil imports with USD 760 million.