The Southeastern region of Turkey has exported cereal, pulse and oilseeds and products valued at USD 169 million 937 thousand in January. The region’s leader position in export continues.

Mahsum Altunkaya, the President of Southeastern Anatolia Cereal, Pulse, Oilseeds and Products’ Exporters Union, said the sector has a powerful start to 2018 despite the instability in the current markets. Altunkaya said the region has exported cereal, pulse and oilseeds and products valued at USD 169 million 937 thousand in January, adding that the region is continuing to hold the leader position in the export. Referring to the region that stands out in exports of the sector, Altunkaya noted, “Turkey’s southeastern region meets the Middle East’s food need. Despite all the difficulties in the region, we have conducted 75.4 percent of our exports to Middle Eastern countries. We performed an export of $ 128 million in January to this region. African countries followed the Middle East with 31 million. The underlying reason why our exports have increased by 63.2 percent compared to the previous year is that we entered into different markets.” Stating that the big portion of export realized from the region is wheat flour, Altunkaya said that, “In January, 40 million 886 thousand dollars of wheat flour exports were made. The second product is pasta. The region realized a pasta export of 31 million 853 thousand dollars. The third product group that the region exported is biscuit-cake products, with a volume of 22 million dollars.”