In his written statement, Kadooğlu stated that pasta exports ranked first among basic food products in the region, followed by wheat flour, sunflower seed oil, and sweet biscuits-wafers.
Kadooğlu noted that there was an increase of nearly 35% in exports of sweet biscuits and wafers, close to 45% in cocoa products, and approximately 120% in exports of non-cocoa sugar and sugar products. He expressed that while sales to Africa decreased by 9.4% during this period, there was a 15.4% increase in exports to the Middle East, which was the region with the highest exports.
Assessing the impact of restrictions imposed by Iraq on food product imports on sectoral exports, which have a significant place in the grain sector exports, Kadooğlu stated:
“The grain, legume, oilseed, and products sector, which was the export leader in the first quarter in the Southeast Anatolia region, increased its exports by 10%, reaching $836.5 million. Our companies in Southeast Anatolia sell an average of $100 million worth of basic food products to Iraq every month. These figures indicate that more than half of the sector’s exports to Iraq are made from our region. Iraq’s share in Turkey’s total $3.1 billion grain exports in the first quarter amounted to $583 million. We believe that the visit planned by our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Iraq in April will greatly contribute to the development of commercial relations between the two countries.”
source: aa.com.tr/ prepared by Melisa Beğiç