Turkey's tomato exports increased 46 percent in October, Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO) Chairman Davut Çetin said yesterday.
Çetin said vegetables are in a good condition in terms of agricultural exports, but citrus not so much.
"I give Turkey's figure because now most of our fruits and vegetables are exported through other provinces. There is no doubt that the indicators are better than that of the previous year," Çetin continued.
During ATSO's Ordinary General Assembly Meeting in November, Çetin said the recent fluctuations in the foreign exchange have been upsetting, recalling that the dollar has risen from TL 2 to TL 4 in the last three years.
Noting that there was a 16 percent increase in two months, Çetin said if there were such an exchange rate increase in China or Germany, exports would surge, but imports and input costs increase in Turkey.
Çetin said that in this environment, the central bank keeps the weekly benchmark rate fixed at 8 percent, but gives money to banks starting at 12.25 percent, adding that according to the September month-end data, consumer inflation is 11.9 percent, producer inflation is 17 percent, and banks collect deposits from 14 percent to 15 percent while government bonds interest is 14 percent.
"As the central bank hides its interest leverage, we will have to pay higher interest after a while. It cannot be said that Turkey has a big risk in the short term. The most important risk is the outflow of some part of foreign capital," Çetin said. "Our foreign currency assets are sufficient in the short term. Nevertheless, these fluctuations adversely affect the economy."
Çetin said that growth figures for the third quarter will be announced two weeks later.
He also said that the number of tourists arriving in Antalya reached 10 million, and this year the number of employees increased 10 percent and the number of tradesmen and employers rose 8 percent.
"Foreign residential sales had dropped a while back, but they now began to recover a bit. We sold 3,800 houses to foreigners in the first 10 months of this year," Çetin said, noting that while Antalya used to lead the way in residential sales to foreigners, now Istanbul outscores Antalya's sales figures. He also added that Antalya should make some effort to counter this.
Despite Antalya seeing 10 million tourists, the increase in income has remained limited and the increase in tourism is not reflected sufficiently in the commercial sector, Çetin said, explaining that the number of companies and work places in the city is continuously increasing.
Çetin said that even though Antalya has experienced difficulties in trade, one should not be pessimistic for the future. "The tourism forecasts for the next year are extremely positive. There has been an increase of up to 40 percent in early bookings of some tour operators."
Saying that Turkey is on the rise in the U.K. market, Çetin added that due to the increase in prices in Spain, the profits of tour operators in the German market have become dependent on Turkey.
Çetin suggested that Antalya has to race to the top in tourism and agriculture and compete with Istanbul and world cities in residential real estate.
