Heading into the new year, Türkiye looks to pick up from what is all but a guaranteed record in outbound shipments in 2022, a year marked by unprecedented challenges, according to a head of the country’s exporters association.
Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) Chair Mustafa Gültepe says they look to add further momentum that will help the country achieve $300 billion in sales in as soon as two years, before eventually placing Türkiye among the top 10 countries in exports.
“In order for us to achieve our goals, we need to increase our exports by at least 10% every year. We will start 2023 with this goal,” Gültepe told an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday.
“We aim to increase our exports to at least $300 billion within two years and to put Türkiye among the top 10 countries in exports in the long term.”
Exports have been one of the main drivers of Türkiye’s economic growth this year and have hit record-high volumes throughout the first 11 months of this year.
Yet, a global slowdown has put a drag on foreign demand, notably among Türkiye’s largest trade partners, spearheaded by Europe.
Outbound shipments from January through November jumped 14% from a year ago to $231 billion, while imports were up 36.6% to nearly $331.1 billion, according to official data, driven mainly by steep rises in energy and commodity prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Exports had ended 2021 at a record $225.4 billion, a figure that government and economists expected to reach $250 billion this year.
The fresh all-time high seems all but sure as the 12-month rolling exports reached $253.5 billion as of November.
Yet, Gültepe said uncertainties in global trade make it hard to shape expectations, particularly for the first quarter of 2013.
“It is not easy to draw a clear picture due to uncertainties in global trade, especially in Europe, our main market. Therefore, the size of the slowdown in global markets will be decisive in the performance we will show in the coming year,” he noted.
The record in 2021 was mainly driven by a high foreign demand and orders that stemmed from supply bottlenecks and soaring freight costs during the coronavirus pandemic.
Gültepe said the momentum maintained pace, particularly into the first half of 2022, stressing that exporters managed to achieve double-digit growth despite the negative effects of the foreign exchange parity.
Yet, he said the energy crisis in Europe and recession risks drove orders downward in the second half of the year.
“Due to the problems experienced in price fixing in sectors such as ready-made and textiles, a significant part of the orders received during the pandemic period shifted to countries such as India and Pakistan,” Gültepe said.
“Although there were some negativities, we spent 11 months with a performance above our targets. We reached the annual export volume of 2021 before even entering the last week of November,” he noted.
Gültepe said exporters suffered around $13 billion in losses this year due to the euro/dollar parity. He stressed they could have reached even $270 billion in annual sales had the party followed the 2021 course and had there not been the loss in orders in the second half.
Gültepe also highlighted Türkiye’s long efforts to diversify markets and also expressed high expectations regarding the services exports, which he said they aim to increase by at least $40 billion next year.
“We are trying to increase our market diversity in order to reduce the impact of periodic developments on our exports. In 2023, we will organize a trade delegation to one near and one far country every month,” he noted.
Gültepe said they are looking to increase $85 billion worth of services exports to as much as $125 billion in 2023.
“Especially in Latin America, Turkish TV series are attracting a lot of attention. We will also use the power of series in our studies in this geography.”