EU top market for Turkish industrial products in 2017

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkish enterprises in industry sector exported mostly to the European Union with 53.1 percent of their total exports last year, according to Turkey's statistical authority on Tuesday.

TurkStat said that exports of enterprises in industry sector $88.8 billion in 2017 -- some $47.1 billion of them to the EU -- accounting for 56.6 percent of Turkey's total exports.

Near and Middle Eastern region was the second largest export market for Turkish industrial products with around $14.7 billion, followed by the countries in North America with nearly $6.5 billion.

Last year, the country's total exports amounted to nearly $157 billion -- including industry, trade, and other sectors -- while Turkey's total exports to the EU was $73.9 billion.

"63.8 percent of exports to the EU [were] performed by industry sector and 34.4 percent of exports to the EU [were] performed by trade sector," TurkStat said.

TurkStat also said that top 100 enterprises performed 46 percent of the country's total exports in 2017.

"Top 5 enterprises whose main activity was industry had a share of 21 percent in sector and enterprises whose main activity was trade had a share of 14.7 percent in exports," it said.

"4.5 percent of enterprises exported to 20 or more partner countries and performed more than half 58.3 percent of the exports," the institute added.