Türkiye's jewelry exports jumped close to 80% in February compared to the same month last year, surpassing $861 million, according to a report on Monday citing official data.
In a period when a mixed economic outlook prevails worldwide and consumers shift their spending increasingly toward basic needs, the positive momentum of the Turkish jewelry sector in exports continued to garner attention.
Türkiye's overall exports decreased by 1.5% in February on an annual basis to $20.78 billion, according to information compiled by the Anadolu Agency (AA) from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) data.
During this period, the jewelry sector's exports increased by 79.1% to $861.62 million, the data revealed. In contrast, the foreign sales from the sector amounted to $481.1 million in February last year.
Moreover, it was calculated that the jewelry sector's exports held a 4.1% share of total exports in the month.
When the export figures of the jewelry sector are examined considering the subgroup of goods, it was seen that gold jewelry and related products stood out, accounting for over 80% of the sales or $714.5 million. Among other subitems, unprocessed or semi-processed gold sales were realized at $85.8 million, while silver-made jewelry and related goods' exports amounted to $34.6 million last month.
The highest exports in the jewelry sector were made to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with $411.7 million, followed by the U.S. with $56.6 million, Switzerland with $53.4 million, Hong Kong with $45.2 million and Kyrgyzstan with $43.5 million.
The UAE also ranked first in export growth. In February, the jewelry sector's exports to the country increased by $275 million.
When examined on a provincial basis, Istanbul led with $605.8 million in exports from the sector in February. In the same period, jewelry exports from Çorum amounted to $228.2 million, with Trabzon following at $13.8 million. Exports in the single-digit range were spearheaded by Kastamonu at $7 million, followed by Sakarya at $2.9 million and Ankara at $1.6 million.
