Turkey has sold nearly 240,000 tons of hazelnuts abroad in the first nine months of the export season, making a $1.5 billion revenue, according to a national union yesterday.

The export volume between September 2017 and May 2018 saw a 26.1 percent jump in the same period from a year earlier, the Black Sea Hazelnut and Products Exporters' Union said. Despite the growing sales volume, the value of exports dropped by around three percent over the same period of the previous season, according to the union's statistics.

Nearly 75 percent of Turkey's hazelnut exports in this period were made to EU countries, amounting to around $1.1 billion.

The country exported nearly 236,000 tons of hazelnuts and earned $1.88 billion during the entire 2016-2017 export season - from September to August. Turkey is the world's largest exporter of hazelnuts.