Special trade delegation organized for the food sector

Many products, ranging from dried fruits, in which Turkey is a global leader in production and export, to olives and olive oil, and from fruit and vegetable products to spices, were introduced to the UK market.

Jak Eskinazi, Coordinator President of the Aegean Exporters' Associations, said, “The UK is our fourth largest export market. In 2022, Turkey's exports to the United Kingdom reached 12 billion dollars. In the January-October period of 2023, we realized 9.4 billion dollars in exports. 89 percent of these exports are industrial. Turkey is among the most important suppliers for the UK in industrial product groups. Within the scope of the International Competitiveness Development Project (UR-GE) supported by our Ministry of Trade, we aim to bring together our exporters operating in the food sector to help them adapt to new regulations and standards under the theme of sustainability in international markets and to increase their competitive power. Negotiations are ongoing regarding the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between our country and the UK, which has left the EU and the Customs Union. We anticipate that our exports will increase further with the updating of the FTA and its expansion into new areas. We have left behind a productive sectoral trade delegation. We desire the development of the trade volume between Turkey and the UK.”

Hayrettin Uçak, Vice Coordinator President of the Aegean Exporters' Associations and President of the Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters' Association, stated, “We are in a leading position in Turkey in the export of agricultural and organic products. We increased our agricultural product exports by 12 percent in the last 1-year period, bringing them to 7.3 billion dollars. We continue our efforts to reach our 10 billion dollar target and to improve our food system. With the delegation organized within the scope of the Sustainable Export in Food Sectors UR-GE Project, 10 of our Turkish companies introduced dried fruits, seafood, olives, olive oil, vegetable oil, non-wood forest products, and fruit and vegetable products—sectors in which we are leaders in production and export—to British food importing companies. Our Turkish food exporters held nearly 100 bilateral business meetings with 35 companies from the UK. Given that negotiations are ongoing within the scope of the FTA between the UK and our country, the elimination of customs duties on olive oil exports from Turkey to the UK would enable our country to gain a significant share in the UK market, which meets almost all of its needs from EU countries such as Spain and Italy and imports an average of 70 thousand tons of olive oil annually. We expressed these demands during bilateral contacts. We will see the positive reflections of these contacts on our export figures in the coming period. We aim to increase our food exports to the UK to 2 billion dollars. We will continue to carry our duty of being a bridge between the two countries forward in the best way possible through bilateral business meetings.”