The ornaments that add color to New Year's celebrations constitute a significant economic chunk of foreign trade. Around $20 million is spent annually on the import and export of New Year's Eve decorations, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data. Shopping ahead of New Year's Eve continues at full speed with only a couple of days left until the end of 2017.
Decorations and entertainment for celebrations also hold an important place in New Year's Eve shopping. In fact, preferences for these products have created an important sector in foreign trade. Foreign trade for New Year's Eve celebrations is categorized under the headings "electric lights used on trees" and "entertainment goods."
With regard to the said products, Turkey generates a foreign trade deficit. In 5 years, Turkey reached about $87 million in imports and about $6 million in exports of products used in New Year's Eve celebrations.
The amount spent on importing electric lights and ornaments used on New Year's trees stood at $20.7 million in 2012, $16.5 million in 2013, $16 million in 2014 and $19.9 million in 2015, while last year, this figure reached $13.8 million. Thus, the import amount for the past 5 years totaled $87 million. The imports in the 10-month period of this year, on the other hand, reached close to $13 million.
A significant portion of imports were made from China, Vietnam and Poland.
In 5 years, about $5.7 million was obtained from the exports of products for the New Year's Eve celebrations, while in the first 10 months of this year approximately $870,000 was generated from exports.
The U.K., Greece, Denmark, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Oman, Kazakhstan and Cyprus came to the fore in Turkey's exports of New Year's Eve tree ornaments and entertainment goods.
